Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics and global electronics designer Altium Limited ("Altium") Systems have announced that they have entered into a Plan Implementation Agreement ("SIA") whereby Renesas Electronics will acquire Altium through a scheme of arrangement under Australian law, which is reported to be for A$9.1 billion (approximately $59.1 billion) in an all-cash transactionUS$100 million) in the acquisition of 100% of Altium, an Australian design software provider.
According to public information, Altium started in 1985 and is one of the world's earliest providers of PCB design tools, owning software such as Altium Designer, and is a partner of giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. Altium's PCB design software is reported to have added Altium 365, the world's first digital platform for designing and implementing electronic hardware, enabling seamless collaboration throughout the PCB design process.
In June 2023, Renesas announced that it has standardized the development of all PCB designs on Altium's Altium 365 cloud platform. Renesas has been working with Altium to publish the ECAD library for all of its products to the Altium Public Vault. With features such as the Manufacturer Part Search on Altium365, customers can select Renesas parts directly from the Altium library for faster time to market.
Renesas and Altium share a vision to build an integrated, open electronic system design and lifecycle management platform that unifies these steps at the system level. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close in the second half of 2024. Closing of the transaction is subject to approval by Altium shareholders, approvals from the Australian courts, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.