The masses are atwitter over the recently announced Renesas acquisition of Altium, and for good reason. The $5.9 billion price tag is some real coin.

What’s less clear to almost everyone outside the two companies, however, is the underlying strategy and how the merged entity will look going forward.

In announcing the acquisition, Renesas chief executive Hidetoshi Shibata called it “an important first step into our long-term future.” But what is that future?

Obviously, Renesas is not going to take Altium private, for exclusive use by its own customers. The two firms do have many overlapping markets: IoT, consumer, automotive, among others. Renesas also plays in higher-end areas such as high-performance computing that Altium has not to our knowledge penetrated. If OEMs want one-stop shopping for a systems program, a combined Renesas-Altium starts to make some sense. But the latter lacks the chip package tool to complete the proverbial – and literal – circuit.

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SINGAPORE – ASMPT reported revenue of $435.4 million for the fourth quarter, a year-over-year decrease of 21.4%.

EL SALTO, MEXICO – Foxconn has purchased an NT827 million ($26.5 million) plot of land here with the aim to bolster its AI server production capabilities.

TECATE, MEXICO – OSI Electronics has opened a new manufacturing facility here to expand its capabilities in North America.

MOORESVILLE, NC -- General Microcircuits, a subsidiary of East West Manufacturing, will close this year and lay off about 100 workers, according to a mandatory government filing.

OULU, FINLAND – Scanfil saw sales of EUR220.8 million ($239.6 million) in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 0.7% from the same quarter of 2022.

WESTLAKE, OH – Nordson reported Advanced Technology Solutions sales of $119 million for the first quarter of its fiscal year, a decrease of 18% compared to the prior year first quarter.

REDMOND, WA – Data I/O reported sales of $6.9 million in fourth quarter, a decrease of 5% compared to 2022's fourth quarter.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American PCB shipments in January were down 3.9% compared to the same month last year, IPC reported in its latest North American PCB Statistical Program. The book-to-bill ratio stands at 0.93.

SUZHOU, CHINA – Panasonic has begun an expansion project at its SMT machine factory in China's Suzhou Industrial Park.

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