Dialog operates afabless business model, but maintains its own test and physical laboratories in Kirchheim.[4] Since 2021, the company is a subsidiary ofRenesas Electronics.[5]
Dialog Semiconductor was created in May 1985 as IMP (UK) Limited, the European subsidiary of U.S.-based International Microelectric Products, Inc. In late 1989, Daimler-Benz (nowDaimler AG) acquired IMP (UK) and folded the business into subsidiary Temic Telefunken Microelectric GmbH. In March 1998,Apax Partners,Adtran, andEricsson provided funding for the subsidiary (then named Dialogue Semiconductors) to separate from Daimler and form an independent company.[6][better source needed]
In 2005, Jalal Bagherli was appointed as Dialog's CEO.[8] He had previously been CEO of Alphamosaic, a video processing chip specialist acquired byBroadcom in 2004.[9]
2013 - Dialog acquirediWatt Inc, which had filed for anIPO the prior year, for roughly $345 million, paying $310 million in cash and pledging an additional $35 million in contingent considerations.[14][15]
2015 - Dialog made a $4.6 billion offer forAtmel.[16] This acquisition was cancelled in January 2016 when Atmel instead agreed to be purchased byMicrochip for $3.56 billion in cash and stock.[17] To break the agreement, Atmel paid Dialog a termination fee of $137.3 million.[18]
2018 - Apple announced its intent to purchase part of Dialog's business in a $300 million cash deal.[20] Included in the deal was the transfer of 300 Dialog employees to Apple, which represented roughly 16% of Dialog's workforce. Apple also committed another $300 million to purchase Dialog products.[21] In April 2019, Dialog and Apple completed the workforce and intellectual property transfer aspects of the deal.[22]
2019 - Dialog agreed to buySilicon Motion's FCI mobile communications product line for $45 million. The deal expanded Dialog's range of low-power connected devices by adding FCI's battery-operatedWi-FiInternet of Things controllers to its existing line ofBluetooth products. The acquisition also added roughly 100 engineers, based in South Korea, to Dialog's workforce.[23][24]
2019 - Dialog agreed to buy Germany’sCreative Chips as part of its push into low-energy connectivity used for devices in the internet of things (IoT). Dialog paid $80 million for the acquisition, with an additional consideration of $23 million based on revenues targets for the next two years.[25][26]
2020 - Dialog bought US-basedAdesto Technologies, a provider of application-specific semiconductors and embedded systems for theIndustrial IoT, for $500 million.[27]
2021 - In February 2021,Renesas announced that it has agreed to buy Dialog Semiconductor for $5.9 billion.
Dialog sold a range of products, such as PMICs targeted at the automotives and wearable industry,[29][30] as well as smartphones, with a majority of the revenue in 2018 coming from PMIC sales to Apple.[31] Dialog also offered Zero Voltage Switching Power Converter Chips and developedDC-DC converter with TDK.[32][33]IO-Links like the CCE4503, primarily meant for use inIoT-Devices, were also offered alongside LED-Driver,[34][35] USB power delivery controller[36] as well as Audio CODECs.[37] In 2020 Dialog licensed its CBRAM toGlobalFoundries.[38][39]
US$1,376 million (2020)[3]
US$1,654 million (2020)[3]