‘MediaTek wants to acquire Intel’s division that makes chips for power management’

MediaTek’s subsidiary Richtek Technology wants to acquire Intel Enpirion. Under this name Intel releases chips for power management for CPUs, SOCS, ASICS and FPGAs. MediaTek would pay 85 million dollars, or 72 million euros, for Enpirion.

With the acquisition, MediaTek would like to expand Richtek’s product range and offer integrated power management for chips. The website of MediaTek and Richtek does not yet mention the acquisition plans, but Taiwanese media such as DigiTimes and MyFixGuide report that MediaTek has announced the acquisition. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.

MediaTek took over Richtek in 2015. This company specializes in power management for electronics. With Intel’s Enpirion, the company is expanding its knowledge and range of so-called power-system-on-a-chips. These are small DC-to-DC converters that can be used for the power supply to, for example, CPUs, SOCS, ASICS and FPGAs.

It would be a new sale of an Intel division in a series. Intel recently sold its nand memory division to SK Hynix and sold its smartphone modem business to Apple last year. Intel is facing increased competition from AMD, Nvidia and Arm chips.