After slowing in the past couple years, semiconductor merger and acquisition activity strengthened in the first eight months of 2019 with the combined value of about 20 M&A agreement announcements reaching $28.0 billion for the purchase of chip companies, business units, product lines, intellectual property (IP), and wafer fabs between January and the end of…
Capex spending for memory ICs was the driving factor behind very strong increases in industry-wide capex spending over the past two years, according to market research firm IC Insights. Most of those upgrades and expansion plans are now completed or have entered their final building phases. As a result, memory capex is forecast to account…
Intel replaced Samsung as the number one quarterly semiconductor supplier in 4Q18 after losing the lead spot to Samsung in 2Q17, according the market research firm IC Insights. While Samsung held the full-year number one ranking in 2017 and 2018, Intel is forecast to easily recapture the number one ranking for the full year of…
In an ugly turnaround from last year, IC growth rates in 2019 are expected to be heavily weighted toward the negative side of the chart, with nine segments forecast to see a sales decline of 10 percent or more, according to market research firm IC Insights. Sixteen product categories are expected to experience flat sales…
Despite a 38 percent sales decline expected this year, the DRAM market is forecast to remain the largest of all IC product categories in 2019 with sales reaching $62.0 billion, down from $99.4 billion in 2018. IC Insights believes the DRAM market will account for 17 percent of total IC sales in 2019. By comparison,…
The electronics industry has always counted on the proliferation of electronics content to get it through lean economic times. IC Insights’ forecast that semiconductor content is going to drop this year is a blow to the already unsteady market. IC Insights forecasts that the 2019 global electronic systems market will grow 4 percent to $1,680…
Following significant capacity investment through 2018, DRAM manufacturers plan to scale back their capex for at least this calendar year. One of the significant questions facing the IC industry in the second half of 2019 is if and when the DRAM market will rebound, according to IC Insights. Any rebound in the market will be…
IC Insights will release its 200+ page Mid-Year Update to the 2019 McClean Report next month. A portion of the Mid-Year Update will examine the trends for worldwide IC company marketshare by headquarters location. Figure 1 shows the 2018 IDM and fabless company shares of IC sales as well as the total worldwide share of…
After three consecutive years of growth – and a sales increase of 13.2 percent in 2018—the global semiconductor market is forecast by IDC to decline to $440 billion this year, down 7.2 percent from $474 billion in 2018. IDC’s Semiconductor Applications Forecaster also expects that semiconductor revenues will recover in 2020 and log a compound…
For better or worse, DRAM and flash memory have considerable influence on the fortunes of the overall semiconductor market. While memory bolstered chip sales in 2017 and 2018, it will likely have a negative impact in 2019, according to IC Insights. The market research firm expects the memory market will decline by 24 percent –…