Teradyne acquires LightPoint Corporation for $510M

Semiconductor testing giant folds in mobile wireless tech company to power growth

The automatic test equipment behemoth Teradyne, Inc. acquired wireless technology testing company LightPoint Corporation.

Teradyne (NYSE: TER), based in North Reading, Mass., spent the last month tooling the acquisition of Sunnyvale, Calif.'s LightPoint Corporation for $510 million net and a negotiated additional $70 million if laid-out 2012 targets are met, according to Teradyne's representative Andy Blanchard.

LitePoint designs and develops wireless testing solutions for developers and had sales of $86 million in 2010 and was projecting sales of $125-$135 million in 2011, according to Blanchard.

The company also estimated that it has optimized and verified the operation of more than one billion wireless devices worldwide.

Teradyne projected, last month, that this new addition to its company would equate to a $1 billion expansion its wireless market and would grow its smart phone, tablet and mobile internet growth with no product overlap to be concerned with. Last year, Teradyne's sales reached $1.6 billion and before the acquisition it was firmly in the industry of testing semiconductor chips, electronic circuit boards and hard disk drives (a $3.5-5 billion industry a Teradyne representative told VatorNews.)

Teradyne also reported revenue of $411 million for the Q2 of 2011, of which $343 million was in semiconductor test and $68 million in systems test group.

"LitePoint adds a powerful new growth engine to Teradyne's portfolio of market leading test solutions," said Mike Bradley, president and CEO of Teradyne in a statement. 

Veradyne confirmed that all of the LightPoint employees and managment will be kept on as is.

LifePoint has used its testing software and systems with companies such as BelAir Networks, Texas Instruments and Epic Technologies. 

With the rapid growth of the mobile Internet-capable devices projected to reach 4 billion in the next two years Teradyne is making its move to capitalize on the demand for better wireless services. Testing new wireless systems is a lucrative and necessary industry and LightPoint has positioned its system as an "easy-to-deploy, innovative test methodologies running on a software-controlled modular design."

“The combination creates unparalleled chip to system technical expertise, which will deepen and strengthen our products and support,” said Benny Madsen, chairman and CEO of LitePoint in a statement. “Teradyne’s world-class, high-volume test expertise will be transformational to our wireless test solutions and to the industry as a whole.”

Teradyne closed on the NYSE Wednesday up .55 at 11.64.

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