PCC clears merger of Infineon, Cypress

The Philippine Competition Commission said it cleared the acquisition of shares in Silicon Valley-based Cypress Semiconductor Corp. by German chip-maker Infineon Technologies AG.

The transaction involves the merger between IFX Merger Sub Inc., an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of Infineon and Cypress Semicon. 

After the merger, Cypress Semicon will be the surviving corporation to become the wholly-owned subsidiary of Infineon. IFX will be merged into Cypress and the separate corporate existence of IFX will cease.

The PCC said in a decision issued on Aug. 28 that the transaction would not likely result in the substantial lessening of competition as the candidate relevant geographic market of the deal is global in scale and the parties had limited presence in the Philippines.

It said that post-transaction, there would still be competitive constraints from other semicon and chip manufacturers in the global market for integrated circuits or microchips.