Agilent's Semiconductor Group Begins Operations as Avago

Agilent Technologies completed the divestiture of its Semiconductor Products business to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion.


The new company will operate under the name Avago Technologies.




Avago Technologies has a portfolio of more than 5,500 products, which are sold into a broad set of applications and end markets, including wireless and wired communications, industrial, automotive, consumer electronics and storage and computing. The company maintains "top three" market leadership positions in optocouplers, infrared transceivers, optical communications, printer ASICs, optical mouse sensors, and motion control encoders.


Avago Technologies is co-headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and Singapore, and begins operations with 6,500 employees of which 1,000 are analog design engineers.


The company said it will differentiate its business through effective supply chain management, strong worldwide distribution channels and a highly variable, low-cost operating model.


"Our strategy is to leverage our substantial intellectual property, design expertise and system-level knowledge to win in our markets," said Dick Chang, president and CEO of Avago Technologies. "We'll continue to provide the innovative products that enable our customers and that have established our market leadership positions. We'll also continue to drive profitability through a highly variable, low-cost operating model, and we'll capitalize on our new independence by developing an efficient, stand-alone cost structure."http://www.avagotech.comAgilent Technologies announced its plan to divest its Semiconductor business in August 2005.