Analog Devices buys Linear Technology

[chicken]

And the acquisition carousel goes around and around...

Analog Devices buys Linear Technology for $14.8 billion
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-26/analog-devices-said-in-advanced-talks-to-buy-linear-technology

[photon]

I suppose it makes them number 2 Analog Seller after TI and better able to compete against TI. This is assuming their offerings are really complementary.

[b_force]

Maybe this is an answer to TI, who bought National semiconductor a while back and gained a massive amount on the market.
I do like products of AD and Linear, although they are bought a bit pricey.

[Vgkid]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will LT be absorbed into AD, or stay as a seperate company. Will that mean I can finally buy LT parts on mouser.

[daqq]

Fudge...

[Jeroen3]

So, here is a summary in the past year:
Freescale->NXP
Altera->Intel
Wolfspeed (CREE power device)->Infineon
LT->ADI
AMD (IPs)->various Chinese companies
ARM->Softbank
Hittite->ADI
Maxim->TI (cancelled)

I really wish TI can acquire Maxim.

You forgot more recent merges/splits:
NXP forks Nexperia
CSR -> Qualcomm
IR -> Infineon
Micrel -> Microchip
Atmel -> Dialog semiconductor (cancelled)
Atmel -> Microchip
WD -> Sandisk
Broadcom -> Avago

You still follow?
Me neither.

Who's up next? Renesas or ST?

[Ice-Tea]

Wow. Like both, actually. Guess I'll have one less website to check in the future. Less work for me! 

[dannyf]

A good combination of two premier niche players. Synergy on marketing, engineering, back office and support functions, not to mention cross sale opportunities.

Terrible for users of their products.

[Jeroen3]

The people that are affected the most with merges like this are employees. Business operations will be shuffled, locations will be shuffled, people will be fired/hired.

And customers of almost-eol products.

[dannyf]

"Probably years later we will see Intel (Acquires Qualcomm), "

Qualcomm will die because of huawei or some Chinese player. If that's the case, they are unlikely to have value to a desktop CPU maker like Intel, given how important the Chinese market is to them.

I can see it getting picked by armh / Softbank however.

"ADI (Acquires Cypress) "

Of the MCU companies, cypress is the most interesting because it is the most innovative, particularly on the software side. I can see they getting picked up by a large competitor whos weak on software. St,  NXP, or microchip. For example.

[timb]

I wonder how Jim Williams would have felt about this? Speaking of which, I better download all his app notes before they all get updated with "Analog Devices" headers, or more likely, removed entirely.

I have a feeling we're about to lose a slew of very good op-amps (at least any ones that compete with AD's offerings). I also fear for the future of LT's voltage references. I imagine they won't kill off the LTZ1000, as it's the only thing going for high end meters, but the LM399? That's another story...

When I first read the news, my heart instantly sank and I really hoped it was 4-1...

[ebclr]

Don't forget Cypress

The most aggressive buyer on town

Bougth

Broadcom
Spansion
Simtek
Ramtron

[chris_leyson]

I have a feeling we're about to lose a slew of very good op-amps

and maybe 16-bit A-D converters used in many software defined receivers. I hope not.

[Tandy]

Kind of makes sense but Linear seemed to be more engineer lead and Analog more marketing, I hope that the Linear products keep coming and not killed off by the marketing department for not being as easy to market.

[andersm]

Broadcom went to Cypress, IR went to INF loooong ago.

Avago bought Broadcom, and renamed itself to Broadcom. This June, Broadcom sold their "Wireless Internet of Things business" (WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee product lines) to Cypress.

[mrpackethead]

Linux --> apple?

[tszaboo]

Kind of makes sense but Linear seemed to be more engineer lead and Analog more marketing, I hope that the Linear products keep coming and not killed off by the marketing department for not being as easy to market.

Well, there isnt a lot of company which does this:
http://www.linear.com/solutions/7256
Most company is "yeah we made an LDO, whatever"
LT: We made a revolutionary LDO architechture, and here is our co-founder and CTO Bob, who will explain it to you. Also, check out our new application note with paint cans and Frankenstein tube amplifier powered SMPS.

It has been a wonderful 30 year for Linear technology. It will be greatly missed.

[David Hess]

My Linear Technology databooks can now retire and hang out with my Precision Monolithic Incorporated databooks.

That is a shame about the web site; the AD web site is next to useless and even worse than the TI web site.

[nctnico]

Kind of makes sense but Linear seemed to be more engineer lead and Analog more marketing, I hope that the Linear products keep coming and not killed off by the marketing department for not being as easy to market.

I agree. Linear Technology makes very nice chips. I just used one of their simple Li-ion charger in one of my designs. Two external components to set maximum charge time and charge current are all that is required to make it go. And it also outputs it's status as well.

[ECEdesign]

I like both of their products.  The nice thing about Linear is that you can call up an engineer and ask about technical issues.  TI and AD you have to go through a bloody forum.  AD makes some really precision products but I think the engineers are really held in high regard at Linear.  Their claim to fame was low drama at Linear.  Hope that doesn't go away.

[David Hess]

My Linear Technology databooks can now retire and hang out with my Precision Monolithic Incorporated databooks.

That is a shame about the web site; the AD web site is next to useless and even worse than the TI web site.

This is what happens when executives that occasionally view a website (usually on a smart-phone), get control of the design of the website.  The vast majority of end-users of these websites are the engineers that are just trying to find the right part for a design they are working on, and they usually do this on a workstation with a larger screen.  So, you end up with a "pretty" website that is practically useless for engineers.  What they *should* do is ASK US what we want, instead of re-inventing the website and then shoving it in our faces.  I like TI parts, but their website has become damn near unusable, so I have been avoiding them since they changed to the "new improved look".  ADI is not far behind.  Linear's website is an engineer's dream.  I'm afraid that this is all going to change-- ADI is one to ruin things if they can.  They have been going downhill since their original founder died.  Oh well...

Back when paper databooks and datasheets ruled the world, I would make my own selection guides by including specifications and calculations based on specifications and measurements.  I have had to do less of that when using parts from certain manufacturers like LT, to a lessor extent TI, and not at all for AD simply based on the usability of their web site.  For AD and TI, I end up downloading all of the individual datasheets which might possibly contain a suitable part and doing it the old fashioned way.  The waste of time involved led me to use more LT parts.

I fear I am going to have to write off LT just like I wrote off ATMEL when Microchip acquired them.  In the past I wrote off PMI after AD acquired them but that was because of the drop in datasheet quality.  The very old AD datasheets and application notes were nice though and I still have them along with the ones from National.

James Burke said it best however.  If it is not on the internet, then it does not exist.

The current Tektronix web site is atrocious as well; I can no longer download their user manuals to find out if a product will do what I want.  A Tektronix representative has tried to contact me since then but based on previous experience, I see little point in discussing the issue with them.

[razberik]

Oh well, time to backup their entire website.
And do some legacy mirror online ?

[razberik]

Or opposite, that LTspice would be commercial ? 

[Jeroen3]

I like both of their products.  The nice thing about Linear is that you can call up an engineer and ask about technical issues.
[...]

There is the reason Linear parts are more expensive. Their datasheets and appnotes are also very good. Even for the accidental analog designer.

Earliers Linear published this:
http://cds.linear.com/docs/en/article/X54_EN-Analog.pdf

[magetoo]

I wonder how Jim Williams would have felt about this? Speaking of which, I better download all his app notes before they all get updated with "Analog Devices" headers, or more likely, removed entirely.

In the past I wrote off PMI after AD acquired them but that was because of the drop in datasheet quality.  The very old AD datasheets and application notes were nice though and I still have them along with the ones from National.

Oh well, time to backup their entire website.
And do some legacy mirror online ?

Bitsavers archives this sort of thing, might be worth taking a look if something is already there if you're thinking of doing the same.  Very little from Linear there unfortunately.

Shame they don't keep more datasheets and app notes, I would love to have a go-to place that doesn't add watermarks, extra pages, and other garbage.