Tessera to Purchase Shellcase Technology

Staff -- Semiconductor International, 11/1/2005

Tessera Technologies Inc. (San Jose) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase certain assets of Shellcase Ltd. (Jerusalem, Israel), whose technology portfolio includes wafer-level packaging for image sensors and other devices.

Under the terms of the agreement, Tessera will pay ~$33M in cash for certain assets of Shellcase, including its intellectual property portfolio, and all economic benefits from its existing licenses. Tessera is not assuming any manufacturing capability or liability from Shellcase, according to Bruce McWillams, Tessera’s chairman and CEO. This transaction, which is expected to close this quarter, is subject to various standard closing conditions, including applicable regulatory approvals.  

The purchase will solidify Tessera’s position in the wafer-level packaging market for image sensors and MEMS devices, McWilliams noted. “With this transaction, the MEMS market also now represents a major growth opportunity for Tessera,” he said. “The MEMS market is an emerging market with high packaging costs that we believe Shellcase’s technology can substantially reduce.”

Tessera plans to create a center of excellence to develop next-generation wafer-level packaging technologies, McWilliams added, noting that Tessera will transfer its internal wafer-level packaging R&D efforts to the Shellcase facility in Israel following the transaction.

McWilliams said the purchase should not have any material impact on Tessera's earnings and cash flow in 2006 because the increase planned in wafer-level packaging R&D will be offset by the new revenues generated.