Lattice Semiconductor Plans to Acquire Firmware Supplier AMI for $1.65 Billion
Lattice Semiconductor, a US programmable logic device manufacturer, announced it will acquire American Megatrends Inc. (AMI), a US firmware supplier, for approximately $1.65 billion in cash and stock. Upon completion of the transaction, AMI will become a subsidiary of Lattice Semiconductor, and the dominant UEFI/BIOS supply landscape on desktop and numerous x86/x64 platforms will change accordingly.
Just last week, Lenovo completed its acquisition of Phoenix Technologies' firmware (BIOS) technology business. Now, AMI is also about to change hands, meaning that Insyde Software of Taiwan will become the only independent UEFI/BIOS developer remaining in the market. In the desktop motherboard field, AMI has long been the preferred firmware supplier for the vast majority of mainstream motherboard manufacturers and many other hardware vendors. After this merger is finalized, its unique position in the industry is likely to continue, only transitioning from an independent company to a member of the Lattice system.
Lattice Semiconductor is a manufacturer focused on FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) solutions, with products covering a variety of niche markets, and competes with companies such as Xilinx under AMD and Altera, partially owned by Intel. In terms of surface business types, the intersection between firmware supplier AMI and FPGA manufacturer Lattice is not direct, and it is currently difficult for outsiders to see the specific synergy between the two. However, Lattice CEO Ford Tamer stated in a statement that introducing AMI's technology and team is expected to help customers "deploy complex systems faster and with more confidence," and further strengthen the company's proposed "everywhere companion chip" strategy.
For AMI's existing customers, whether the cooperation model will change significantly in the short term remains to be seen. As the largest UEFI/BIOS supplier currently, AMI's firmware is widely used in almost all mainstream motherboard brands and many other x86/x64 hardware products. This high penetration makes it irreplaceable in the ecosystem, and also determines that Lattice must maintain stable support for existing customers during the integration process.
With Lenovo acquiring Phoenix's firmware business, Lattice planning to acquire AMI, and Insyde Software still operating independently, the global mainstream PC firmware supply landscape is showing a further trend towards concentration among large hardware and chip manufacturers. In the context that open-source firmware is still difficult to meet the large-scale OEM demand in terms of new product support cycles and commercial supporting facilities, this round of capital and industrial integration is expected to further consolidate the core role of a few commercial UEFI/BIOS suppliers in the PC industrial chain.