Cork tech firm Powervation bought by Rohm for US$70m

It developed an energy-saving microchip that manages power in computer systems with high-power requirements.

As digital power technologies continue to displace traditional analog technology, the power IC market is undergoing a shift in where opportunities reside for next-generation power solutions.

Rohm expects the acquisition to help it gain traction in the cloud, data centre and communications infrastructures markets, as the company has so far focused primarily on the consumer, automotive and industrial sectors.

“ROHM and Powervation share a common vision for the role of digital power technology in transforming the market with the next generation high performance power solutions,”said Mike Smith, ROHM USA senior vice president and general manager”.

The acquisition turns Powervation into a fully owned subsidiary of Rohm, but the company will maintain its design centre in Ireland as well as its system application centres in the US and in China.

Powervation chief executive, Mike McAuliffe said yesterday’s announcement has been a long time coming but positions the company to scale up operations both in Cork and at its other base in San Jose. ROHM is an industry leader in system LSI, discrete components, and module products, utilizing the latest in semiconductor technology. LAPIS Semiconductor (former OKI Semiconductor), SiCrystal AG and Kionix are also companies of the ROHM Group. The company’s programmable digital control platform delivers significant benefits in performance, efficiency and design flexibility.

The company now has its headquarters in Cork, with facilities in San Jose, Taipei, Shenzhen and Beijing.

The Powervation team have been successful since 2006 in raising additional funding to further their research and development efforts which has been backed by leading investors – SEP, Intel Capital, VentureTech Alliance, Braemar Energy Ventures, 4thLevel Ventures, Enterprise Ireland and Semtech Corporation.