Infineon Technologies

Infineon Technologies AG is a German semiconductor manufacturer founded in 1999, when the semiconductor operations of the former parent company Siemens AG were spun off. Infineon has about 47,400 employees and is one of the ten largest semiconductor manufactures worldwide.[3] It is market leader in automotive and power semiconductors.[3] In fiscal year 2019, the company achieved sales of €8.0 billion.[2] Infineon bought Cypress in April 2020.[3]

Headquarters of Infineon near Munich in Neubiberg. The campus is called "Campeon".
This article is about the German corporation. For the racing circuit once named after Infineon, see Sonoma Raceway.

Infineon Technologies AG
Aktiengesellschaft
Traded asFWB: IFX
ISINDE0006231004 
IndustrySemiconductors
FoundedApril 1, 1999 (1999-04-01)
Headquarters
Neubiberg
,
Germany
Key people
Reinhard Ploss (CEO and Chairman of the executive board)
Wolfgang Eder (Chairman of the supervisory board)[1],
Sabine Herlitschka (CEO of Infineon Technologies Austria)
ProductsMicrocontrollers, communication ICs, Power electronics, ESD Protection Diodes
Revenue€8.029 billion (2019)[2]
€1.161 billion (2019)[2]
€870 million (2019)[2]
Total assets€13.412 billion (2019)[2]
Total equity€8.633 billion (2019)[2]
Number of employees
≈ 47,400 (9 June 2020)[3]
DivisionsAutomotive, Industrial Power Control, Power Management & Multimarket, Digital Security Solutions [4]
Websitewww.infineon.com

Markets

Infineon markets semiconductors and systems for automotive, industrial, and multimarket sectors, as well as chip card and security products. Infineon has subsidiaries in the USA in Milpitas, California, and in the Asia-Pacific region, in Singapore and Tokyo, Japan.

Infineon has a number of facilities in Europe, one in Dresden. Infineon's high power segment is in Warstein, Germany; Villach and Graz in Austria; Cegléd in Hungary; and Italy. It also runs R&D centers in France, Singapore, Romania, Taiwan, UK and India, as well as fabrication units in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. There's also a Shared Service Center in Maia, Portugal.

Infineon is listed in the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

In 2010, a proxy contest broke out in advance of the impending shareholders' meeting over whether board member Klaus Wucherer would be allowed to step into the chairman's office upon the retirement of the then-current chairman Max Dietrich Kley.

After several restructurings,[5] Infineon today comprises four business areas:

Automotive (ATV)

Infineon provides semiconductor products for use in powertrains (engine and transmission control), comfort electronics (e.g., steering, shock absorbers, air conditioning) as well as in safety systems (ABS, airbags, ESP). The product portfolio includes microcontrollers, power semiconductors and sensors. In fiscal year 2018 (ending September), sales amounted to €3,284 million[4] for the ATV segment.

Industrial Power Control (IPC)

The industrial division of the company includes power semiconductors and modules which are used for generation, transmission and consumption of electrical energy. Its application areas include control of electric drives for industrial applications and household appliances, modules for renewable energy production, conversion and transmission. This segment achieved sales of €1,323 million in fiscal year 2018 [4].

Power Management & Multimarket (PMM)

The division Power Management & Control sums up the business with semiconductor components for efficient power management or high-frequency applications. Those find application in lighting management systems and LED lighting, power supplies for servers, PCs, notebooks and consumer electronics, custom devices for peripheral devices, game consoles, applications in medical technology, high-frequency components having a protective function for communication and tuner systems and silicon MEMS microphones. In fiscal year 2018 PMM generated €2,318 million [4].

Digital Security Solutions (DSS) [4]

The DSS business provides microcontrollers for mobile phone SIM cards, payment cards, security chips and chip-based solutions for passports, identity cards and other official documents. Infineon delivers a significant number of chips for the new German identity card.[6] In addition, DSS provides solutions for applications with high security requirements such as pay television and Trusted Computing. DSS achieved €664 million in fiscal year 2018 [4]. "Infineon is the number 1 in embedded security" (IHS, 2016 – IHS Embedded Digital Security Report).

Acquisitions and divestitures

ADMTek acquisition

Infineon bought ADMtek in 2004.[7][8]

Qimonda carve out

The former Memory Products division was carved out in 2006 as Infineon’s subsidiary Qimonda AG, of which Infineon last held a little over three quarters. At its height Qimonda employed about 13,500 people; it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange until it filed for bankruptcy with the district court in Munich in January 2009.[9]

Lantiq carve out

On 7 July 2009, Infineon Technologies AG agreed by contract with the U.S. investor Golden Gate Capital on the sale of its Wireline Communications for €250 million.[10] The resulting company was named Lantiq and had around 1,000 employees.[11] It was acquired by Intel in 2015.[12]

Mobile Communications sale to Intel

On 31 January 2011, the sale of the business segment of wireless solutions to Intel was completed for US$1.4 billion.[13] The resulting new company had approximately 3,500 employees and operated as Intel Mobile Communications (IMC).[14][15] The smartphone modem business of IMC was announced to be acquired by Apple Inc. in 2019.[16]

International Rectifier acquisition

Infineon Technologies agreed on 20 August 2014 to buy the International Rectifier Corporation (IR) for about $3 billion,[17] one third by cash and two thirds by credit line.[18] The acquisition of International Rectifier was officially closed on 13 January 2015.[19]

Wolfspeed acquisition attempt

In July 2016, Infineon announced it agreed to buy the North Carolina-based company Wolfspeed from Cree Inc. for $850 million in cash.[20] The deal was however stopped due to US security concerns.[21]

Innoluce BV acquisition

In October 2016, Infineon acquired the company Innoluce which has expertise in MEMS and LiDAR systems for use in autonomous cars. The MEMS lidar system can scan up to 5,000 data points a second with a range of 250 meters with an expected unit cost of $250 in mass production.[22][23]

RF Power sale to Cree

In March 2018, Infineon Technologies AG sold its RF Power Business Unit to Cree Inc. for €345 Million.[24]

Cypress Semiconductor acquisition

In June 2019, Infineon announced it would acquire Cypress Semiconductors for $9.4 billion.[25][26] The acquisition closed on April 17, 2020.[27]

Financial data
Financial data in € billions[28]
Year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Revenue 3.843 4.320 5.795 6.473 7.063 7.599 8.029
Net Income 0.272 0.535 0.632 0.743 0.790 1.075 0.870
Assets 5.905 6.438 8.741 9.087 9.945 10.879 13.412
Employees 26,725 29,807 35,424 36,299 37,479 40,100 41,418

Management

The board of directors consists of Reinhard Ploss, CEO; Sven Schneider, CFO; Helmut Gassel, Sales and Marketing; Jochen Hanebeck, Operations[29]

Litigation

In 2004–2005, an investigation was carried out into a DRAM price fixing conspiracy during 1999–2002 that damaged competition and raised PC prices. As a result, Samsung paid a $300 million fine, Hynix paid $185 million, Infineon: $160 million. Micron Technology cooperated with prosecutors and no fine is expected.[30]

Security flaw
Main article: ROCA vulnerability

In October 2017, it was reported that a flaw, dubbed ROCA, in a code library developed by Infineon, which had been in widespread use in security products such as smartcards and TPMs, enabled private keys to be inferred from public keys. As a result, all systems depending upon the privacy of such keys were vulnerable to compromise, such as identity theft or spoofing. Affected systems include 750,000 Estonian national ID cards, 300,000 Slovak national ID cards,[31] and computers that use Microsoft BitLocker drive encryption in conjunction with an affected TPM.[32] Microsoft released a patch that works around the flaw via Windows Update immediately after the disclosure.[33]

Notes
  1. "Changes at Infineon's Supervisory Board". Automotive Purchasing and Supplychain. 6 August 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  2. "Fourth Quarter 2019 Press Release" (PDF). Infineon Technologies. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  3. "Company Presentation June 2020" (PDF). Infineon. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  4. "Annual Report 2018" (PDF). Infineon Technologies. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  5. "Arunjai Mittal Becomes Management Board Member Responsible for Sales, Marketing and Strategy Development at Infineon - Industrial & Multimarket Business Divided into Two Divisions - Infineon Technologies".
  6. "Infineon chips for the new identity cards" (in German). Computerwoche.de. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  7. "Infineon to Acquire Taiwanese Chip Designer ADMtek - First Acquisition in Asia Strengthens Infineon´s Communications Business - Infineon Technologies".
  8. "Infineon buys ADMtek for US$100 million in cash - Taipei Times". 29 January 2004.
  9. NYSE Regulation, Inc. (23 January 2009). "NYSE Suspends Qimonda AG, Moves to Remove from the List". NYSE. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
  10. "Infineon verkauft Wireline Communications Geschäft an US-Investor - Infineon Technologies".
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. Jens Hack/Harro ten Wolde (2 February 2015). "Intel buys former Infineon 'Internet of Things' chip unit Lantiq". Reuters. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  13. AG, Infineon Technologies. "Intel to Acquire Infineon's Wireless Solutions Business - Infineon Technologies". www.infineon.com. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  14. "Infineon schließt Verkauf des Mobilfunkgeschäfts an Intel ab – Neues Unternehmen Intel Mobile Communications GMBH nimmt Betrieb auf - Infineon Technologies".
  15. "Intel buys Wireless Solutions section from Infineon". Infineon.com. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  16. Axon, Samuel (25 July 2019). "Apple acquires Intel's 5G smartphone modem business for $1 billion". ars Technica. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  17. "Infineon to Buy International Rectifier, a Chip Maker, for $3 Billion". Dealbook.nytimes.com.
  18. Alex Sherman, Amy Thomson and Alex Webb (21 August 2014). "Infineon to Buy International Rectifier for $3 Billion".
  19. "Infineon Technologies AG successfully acquires International Rectifier".
  20. By Friedrich Geiger and Eyk Henning, Wall Street Journal. “Infineon to Buy Cree’s Wolfspeed Unit for $850 Million .” July 14, 2016. July 25, 2016.
  21. "Cree ends Wolfspeed deal with Infineon over U.S. security concerns". Reuters. 16 February 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  22. AG, Infineon Technologies. "Infineon strengthens leading position in automated driving through acquisition of Innoluce BV - Infineon Technologies". www.infineon.com. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  23. "A breakthrough in miniaturising lidars for autonomous driving". The Economist. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  24. "Cree Acquires Infineon's RF Business for €345 Million". everything RF. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  25. "Infineon Nears Deal to Buy Cypress Semiconductor". Bloomberg. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  26. "Infineon acquires Cypress Semiconductor for $9.4B". SiliconANGLE. 2 June 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  27. "Infineon completes acquisition of Cypress". DIGITIMES. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  28. "Infineon Technologies Bilanz, Gewinn und Umsatz | Infineon Technologies Geschäftsbericht | 623100". wallstreet-online.de. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
  29. Reuters (14 March 2019). "Infineon names Linde's Schneider as next CFO". Reuters. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  30. Gross, Grant (15 September 2004). "Infineon to pay $160M fine for DRAM price-fixing". Computerworld. IDG. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  31. Gavin, Shoebridge (18 October 2017). "Slovak ID card security risk exposed". RTVS. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  32. Goodin, Dan (16 October 2017). "Millions of high-security crypto keys crippled by newly discovered flaw". Ars Technica. Condé Nast.
  33. Busvine, Douglas (16 October 2017). "Infineon says has fixed encryption flaw found by researchers". Reuters. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
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