The story
1950-1999
The company was founded in the 1950s as Microwave Associates by the engineers Vessarios Chigas, Louis Roberts, Hugh Wainwright and Richard M. Walker. The company was initially a small supplier of magnetrons to the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
In 1969, the company appointed as its president Lawrence Gould, who had joined the company in 1953 while finishing his PhD at MIT. Gould, appointed CEO in 1975, launched an acquisitions spree that included Digital Communications Corporation in 1978, Linkabit in 1980, and Ohio Scientific in 1981. In 1978, Gould changed the company’s name to M/A-COM to reflect its broader market focus.
During this timeframe, the company produced low power wideband RF amplifier modules for use in test & measurement.
Gould was fired as CEO in July 1982, and was replaced by Richard DiBona. After suffering a stroke in 1986, DiBona was replaced by Thomas Burke in 1987, who was killed in a September 1989 automobile accident. Thomas Vanderslice, former CEO of Apollo Computer, was named the final CEO of the independent M/A-COM in December 1989.
The company divested of DCC and Linkabit operations between 1986 and 1990. However, it faced severe financial pressures with the drop in defense spending in the 1990s. Vanderslice sold the company to AMP Inc., in an all-stock transaction completed in June 1995 that was valued at $316 million.
In 1999, AMP itself was acquired by Tyco Electronics.
2000–2010
In 2001, Tyco acquired Com-Net Ericsson and placed the company under the administration of MACOM, as part of the deal, the company acquired the EDACS radio systems team and products and merged them with its own OpenSky resources. The deal also allowed MACOM to become the second largest two-way radio communications manufacturer in the United States. The combined company subsequently developed a P25 radio offering, and has grown its critical communications systems business to be a large player in the modern wireless two-way communications market. In June 2003, XMA Corporation, located in Manchester, New Hampshire, purchased from MACOM the Omni Spectra line of coaxial attenuators and terminations.
On May 13, 2008, Tyco Electronics announced that it would sell its RF Components and Subsystem Business to Cobham plc for $425 million. Tyco Electronics retained the wireless communications part of MACOM, but renamed it Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems. On September 29, 2008, Tyco Electronics and Cobham announced the completion of the sale of Tyco Electronics’ M/A-COM Radio Frequency Components and Subsystems business to Cobham plc. Tyco Electronics kept its Wireless Systems business unit, and changed its name from M/A-COM to Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems.
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On March 30, 2009, the company acquired all of the outstanding stock of M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc., the primary operating subsidiary of MACOM and the related foreign operating subsidiary, M/ACOM Technology Solutions Limited from Cobham. Cobham plc announced that it had sold M/A-COM's commercial business segment, M/A-COM Technology Solutions, to John Ocampo, the owner of GaAs Labs, on March 31, 2009. In May 2010, MACOM acquired Mimix Broadband, a fabless supplier of GaAs semiconductors.
2011–present
In May 2011, MACOM acquired Optomai Inc., a semiconductor company that developed integrated circuits and modules for 40 and 100-Gbit/s fiber optic networks. The company announced it had reached a deal to purchase Mindspeed Technologies, a network infrastructure semiconductor business in November 2013. In February 2014, the company announced that it had sold Mindspeed's wireless business to Intel Corporation. On February 13, 2014, the company purchased Nitronex LLC, a privately held designer of gallium nitride semiconductors for $26 million. That same year, MACOM also purchased the RF and microwave company IKE Micro and SiPh services company, Photonic Controls. In November 2014, MACOM reached an agreement to buy BinOptics Corporation, a provider of InP lasers that started at Cornell University, for $230 million. In November 2015, the company announced that it planned to acquire the Japanese optical subassembly supplier, FiBest Limited, before the end of the first quarter in 2016. In December 2015, MACOM acquired Aeroflex's diode business, Aeroflex Metelics from Cobham for $38 million in cash. In January 2017, MACOM acquired Applied Micro Circuits Corporation. In February 2023, MACOM announced it had acquired the assets and operations of the Limeil-Brévannes semiconductor manufacturer, OMMIC SAS for €38.5 million. In August 2023, it was announced MACOM had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the RF business of Wolfspeed.
From Wikipedia’s article on MACOM Technology Solutions, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7