Lattice Semiconductor Corporation is an American semiconductor company specializing in the design and manufacturing of low power field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).[2] Headquartered in the Silicon Forest area of Hillsboro, Oregon,[3] the company also has operations in San Jose, Calif.[4], Shanghai,[5] Manila,[6] Penang,[7] and Singapore.[8] Lattice Semiconductor has more than 1000 employees and an annual revenue of more than $660 million as of 2022.[9] The company was founded in 1983 and went public in 1989. It is traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol LSCC.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation
Company typePublic
IndustrySemiconductors
Founded1983; 41 years ago (1983)
HeadquartersHillsboro, Oregon, U.S.45°31′38″N 122°55′36″W / 45.527216°N 122.926626°W / 45.527216; -122.926626
Key people
Jim Anderson (CEO)
Products
RevenueIncrease US$737 million (2023)
Increase US$212 million (2023)
Increase US$259 million (2023)
Total assetsIncrease US$841 million (2023)
Total equityIncrease US$692 million (2023)
Number of employees
1,156 (2023)
Websitelatticesemi.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

History edit

Founding and early growth edit

Lattice was founded on April 3, 1983, by C. Norman Winningstad, Rahul Sud, and Ray Capece,[10] with investment from Winningstad, Harry Merlo, Tom Moyer, and John Piacentini.[10] Lattice was incorporated in Oregon in 1983 and reincorporated in Delaware in 1985. Co-founder Sud left as president in December 1986, and Winningstad left in 1991 as chairman of the board.[10] Early struggles led to chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in July 1987.[10] The company emerged from bankruptcy after 62 days and moved from its headquarters in an unincorporated area near Beaverton to a smaller building in Hillsboro, Oregon.[11] Over the next year, the company shrank from 140 to 64 employees but posted record revenues.[12]

Cyrus Tsui became the company's chief executive officer in 1988.[13] On November 9, 1989, Lattice became a publicly traded company when its shares were listed on the NASDAQ after in initial public offering.[14] The initial share price was $6, and raised almost $14 million for the company.[14] In July 1990, a second stock offering of nearly 1.5 million new shares raised $22.6 million at $16.25 per share.[15]

In 1995, the company attempted to assert trademark rights in the term Silicon Forest beyond the use of its trademark for the use in semiconductor devices.[16] They had registered the mark in 1985, but later conceded they could not prevent the usage of the term as a noun.[16] Forbes ranked the company as their 162nd best small company in the United States in 1996,[17] and Lattice began to double the size of its Hillsboro headquarters.[13]

In 2000, annual revenues topped $560 million with profits of $160 million.[18] Its stock price reached an all-time high of $41.34, adjusted for splits.[18] For the next five years, however, the company recorded no annual profit.

Acquisitions and leadership changes edit

 
Former company headquarters in Portland, Oregon

Lattice purchased Agere Corporation's FPGA division in 2002.[19] In 2004, the company settled charges with the United States government that it had illegally exported certain technologies to China, paying a fine of $560,000.[20] In 2005, Tsui was replaced as CEO by Steve Skaggs[19] and the company laid off employees for the first time.[19] In fiscal year 2006, Lattice posted a profit of $3.1 million on revenues of $245.5 million, the first annual profit since 2000.[21]

In June 2008, Bruno Guilmart was named as chief executive officer of the company, replacing Steve Skaggs.[22] For fiscal year 2008, Lattice had a loss of $32 million on annual revenues of $222.3 million.[23] In 2009, the company began moving all of its warehouse operations for parts from Oregon to Singapore.[24] Through July 2009, the company had lost money for ten straight quarters,[25] and had its first profitable quarter in three years during the fourth quarter of 2009.[26] Bruno Guilmart left the company in August 2010, and Darin Billerbeck, former Zilog CEO, who had just sold Zilog in the previous year, was named the new CEO in October of that year, starting in November.[27] The company reported 2011 revenue of $318 million.[28] Lattice started a stock buy-back program in 2010 that continued into 2012 that would total about $35 million if fully implemented.[29]

In 2011, the company was ranked third among the world's makers of field programmable gate array (FPGA) devices[30] and second for CPLDs & SPLDs.[31] On December 9, 2011, Lattice announced it was acquiring SiliconBlue for $63.2 million in cash.[32][33][34] Lattice announced in July 2012 a foundry agreement with United Microelectronics Corporation.[35] Lattice returned to profitability in 2013 with a profit of $22.3 million on $332.5 million in revenues.[36] The company acquired Silicon Image Inc. for $606 million in March 2015[37] and moved company headquarters to Downtown Portland.[38]

Activity since 2016 edit

In April 2016, Tsinghua Holdings said in a U.S. filing that it accumulated a roughly 6 percent stake in Lattice Semiconductor through share purchased on the open market.[39] In November, 2016, Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, a private equity firm backed by China Reform Holdings Corporation announced a definitive agreement to acquire all of Lattice's shares.[40] The purchase of Lattice by Canyon Bridge was in September 2017 blocked by US President Donald Trump based on the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States on national security grounds under the Exon–Florio Amendment.[41][42][43][44] The company re-located its headquarters back to its Hillsboro campus in 2019.[45]

Activist investor Lion Point Capital purchased a six percent stake in Lattice in February 2018.[46] The next month the company filled three new seats on its board with independent directors supported by Lion Point.[47] That same year, Lattice replaced several members of its leadership team, including bringing in a new president and CEO, Jim Anderson, who previously worked at Advanced Micro Devices.[48] Under the new leadership, Lattice shifted the company's focus entirely to low-power field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).[49] Lattice acquired computer vision software company Mirametrix in November 2021.[50][51]

Products edit

Lattice primarily focuses on small, efficient low-power field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).[52][49] It also sells programmable mixed-signal and interconnect products, related software and intellectual property (IP),[53] for applications from edge computing[54] to cloud computing.[55] Lattice's main products are those based on its Lattice Nexus small FPGA platform[56] and Lattice Avant mid-range FPGA platform.[57] Lattice products are used in a variety of end uses across the communication, computing (client and datacenter), industrial, automotive, and consumer electronics markets.[22]

Lattice's software offerings include design tools Diamond,[58] Radiant,[59] and Propel.[60] It also provides solution stacks designed to provide its customers with application-specific toolkits to help them more easily and quickly design with Lattice technology. As of 2023, these include Lattice mVision, designed for machine vision in power-constrained designs;[61] Lattice sensAI, designed to integrate machine learning into internet of things applications;[62] Lattice Automate, designed to facilitate industrial applications like robotics and real-time networking in settings like automated factories and warehouses;[63] Lattice Sentry, for security;[64] and Lattice Drive for automotive applications.[65]

Operations edit

The company is headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon, in the high-tech area known as the Silicon Forest.[3] The company employs more than 1000 people worldwide as of 2023. Jim Anderson is Lattice's chief executive officer and president.[66][67] Its chief competitors are Xilinx (a subsidiary of AMD) and Intel (former Altera business).[68] After AMD completed the acquisition of Xilinx in February 2022, Lattice Semiconductor became the last fully independent major manufacturer of FPGAs.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "FY2023 Form 10K". EDGAR. United States Securities and Exchange Commission. 16 February 2024.
  2. ^ Maxfield, Max (22 December 2016). "Lattice introduces iCE40 UltraPlus high-performance low-power FPGAs". EETimes. Archived from the original on 30 January 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  3. ^ a b Brian Chappatta, Bloomberg Businessweek. "Silicon Forest Baseball Wager Penalizes Oregon City: Muni Credit." Sep 25, 2012. Retrieved Dec 21, 2012.
  4. ^ "Lattice Website".
  5. ^ Spencer, Malia (18 July 2018). "As it drops a business unit, Lattice reflects on being ahead of its time". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  6. ^ "Lattice's Philippines Facility Receives Industry Recognized ISO9000 Certification - Lattice Semiconductor". Lattice Semiconductor (Press release). 23 January 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  7. ^ "Lattice Website".
  8. ^ Happich, Julien (26 February 2010). "Lattice inaugurates Asia operation center in Singapore". EETimes. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  9. ^ "FY2022 Earnings Announcement". EDGAR. United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  10. ^ a b c d Colby, Richard (April 3, 1991). "Co-founder of Lattice steps down". The Oregonian. p. C8.
  11. ^ "Lattice eyes new location". The Oregonian. October 9, 1987. pp. E14.
  12. ^ Colby, Richard (April 1, 1988). "Lattice profit yields final pay to creditors". The Oregonian. pp. E7.
  13. ^ a b Hill, Jim (October 12, 1996). "All systems go for Lattice on big expansion in Hillsboro". The Oregonian. p. B1.
  14. ^ a b "Lattice stock brings company cash flow". November 10, 1989. pp. E10.
  15. ^ "Lattice finishes stock offering". The Oregonian. July 24, 1990. pp. C13.
  16. ^ a b Francis, Mike (December 3, 1995). "Who owns 'Silicon Forest'?". The Oregonian. p. G1.
  17. ^ "The Bottom Line Briefcase: Forbes ranks six of region's small firms among nation's best". The Oregonian. October 24, 1996. pp. B1.
  18. ^ a b Earnshaw, Aliza (January 24, 2008). "Lattice's 2007 sales and earnings slide". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  19. ^ a b c Earnshaw, Aliza (August 18, 2006). "Lattice hopes good news isn't fleeting". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  20. ^ "Lattice Semiconductor Settles Charges of Illegal Exports to China". U.S. Department of Commerce. September 13, 2004. Archived from the original on February 2, 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  21. ^ Earnshaw, Aliza (January 25, 2007). "Lattice: First annual profits since 2000". High Tech - Semiconductors. Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  22. ^ a b Earnshaw, Aliza (November 14, 2008). "Lattice CEO focuses on the bottom line". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  23. ^ Njus, Elliot (August 6, 2010). "Chief executive who helmed turnaround at Lattice Semiconductor resigns". The Oregonian. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  24. ^ "Lattice to eliminate 64 jobs". Portland Business Journal. July 23, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  25. ^ Rogoway, Mike (July 23, 2009). "Lattice posts 10th straight quarterly loss, plans job cuts". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  26. ^ Rogoway, Mike (January 28, 2010). "Lattice Semiconductor back in the black during fourth quarter". The Oregonian. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
  27. ^ Rogoway, Mike (October 12, 2010). "Lattice Semi names Intel vet its new CEO". The Oregonian. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  28. ^ Njus, Elliot. "Lattice Semiconductor posts higher fourth quarter, 2011 earnings amid lower demand". The Oregonian. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  29. ^ Siemers, Erik (February 29, 2012). "Lattice to repurchase up to $20 million in stock". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  30. ^ FPGA Developer, July 15, 2011 List and comparison of FPGA companies
  31. ^ Baldwin, Howard (June 22, 2006). "Dynamic Duo Still Dominate Programmable Logic". Movers and Shakers 2006. EDN. Archived from the original on October 10, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
  32. ^ Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian. "As sales slide, Lattice Semiconductor pays $62 million for Silicon Valley mobile chip company." Dec 9, 2011. Retrieved Dec 19, 2012.
  33. ^ Maxfield, Clive, Programmable Logic DesignLine, December 9, 2011 OMG! Lattice Semiconductor to acquire SiliconBlue!
  34. ^ Morris, Kevin, EE Journal, Silicon Symbiosis-Lattice Acquires SiliconBlue, December 13, 2011 Silicon Symbiosis
  35. ^ Siemers, Eric, Portland Business Journal, October 18, 2012 Lattice Semiconductor to cut 109 jobs, 30 in Hillsboro
  36. ^ Rogoway, Mike (February 6, 2014). "Lattice Semiconductor extends rebound with unexpectedly strong quarter". The Oregonian. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  37. ^ Giegerich, Andy (March 10, 2015). "Lattice closes deal on $606M purchase". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  38. ^ Rogoway, Mike (May 7, 2015). "Lattice Semiconductor cuts jobs following $600 million acquisition". The Oregonian/OregonLive. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  39. ^ By Eva Dou and Robert McMillan, Wall Street Journal. "China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Buys Small Stake in U.S. Chip Maker Lattice." April 14, 2016. May 4, 2016.
  40. ^ "Lattice Semiconductor to be Acquired by Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, Inc. for $1.3 Billion" (PDF). Palo Alto, CA: Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, Inc. 2016-11-03. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  41. ^ Fiegerman, Seth; Wattles, Jackie (September 13, 2017). "Trump stops China-backed takeover of U.S. chip maker". CNN. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  42. ^ Office of the Press Secretary (September 13, 2017). "Administrative order on the Order Regarding the Proposed Acquisition of Lattice Semiconductor Corporation by China Venture Capital Fund Corporation Limited". whitehouse.gov. Washington, D.C. Retrieved October 8, 2017 – via National Archives.
  43. ^ "Order Regarding the Proposed Acquisition of Lattice Semiconductor Corporation by China Venture Capital Fund Corporation Limited". Federal Register. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. September 13, 2017. Archived from the original on October 9, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2017. Alt URL
  44. ^ Dye, Jessica (September 13, 2017). "Trump bars China-backed bid for semiconductor company". Financial Times. London: The Nikkei. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  45. ^ Spencer, Malia (Mar 7, 2019). "Lattice Semiconductor is on the rebound. Here's a look at its tiny chips". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  46. ^ Spencer, Malia (5 February 2018). "Activist investor buys 6% stake in Lattice Semiconductor". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  47. ^ Spencer, Malia (7 March 2018). "Lattice strikes deal with activist investor, expands board". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  48. ^ Spencer, Malia (7 March 2019). "How Lattice Semiconductor survived a scuttled $1.3B deal, a powerful activist investor and big changes at the top". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  49. ^ a b Kanaval, Stephen L. (16 January 2020). "Lattice Semiconductor: Strong Growth Under New Management". Equities News. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  50. ^ Singh, Preeti (15 November 2021). "Lattice Semiconductor acquires software firm Mirametrix". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  51. ^ Manners, David (16 November 2021). "Lattice buys Mirametrix". Electronics Weekly. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  52. ^ O'Shea, Dan (6 July 2021). "Lattice intros next Nexus FPGA as market change looms". FierceElectronics. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  53. ^ Clive Maxfield, EE Times. "Lattice enhances its wireless base station portfolio." Jun 23, 2008. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  54. ^ Leopold, George (25 August 2021). "Lattice Semi Tunes its FPGA for Auto Apps". EE Times Asia. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  55. ^ Spencer, Malia (12 March 2018). "Lattice Semiconductor CEO to retire this week". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  56. ^ "Lattice press release".
  57. ^ "Lattice press release".
  58. ^ Martin, Nichols (17 March 2021). "Lattice Semiconductor Products Added to DARPA Researchers' Resource Pool". ExecutiveBiz. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  59. ^ Flaherty, Nick (23 June 2021). "Lattice takes on Intel and Xilinx with 100,000 gate FPGA". eeNews Europe. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  60. ^ Flaherty, Nick (25 August 2021). "Lattice drives its FPGAs into automotive". eeNews Automotive. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  61. ^ Morris, Kevin (3 March 2020). "Lattice mVision Stack". EEJournal. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  62. ^ Francis, Sam (21 May 2018). "Lattice Semiconductor launches 'complete hardware stack'". Robotics & Automation News. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  63. ^ O'Shea, Dan (11 May 2021). "Lattice aims new stack at industrial automation market". FierceElectronics. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  64. ^ Flaherty, Nick (2 March 2021). "Lattice boosts FPGA security stack". eeNews Europe. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  65. ^ "Lattice press release".
  66. ^ Rogoway, Mike (January 27, 2011). Lattice concludes comeback year, but says growth will slow The Oregonian.
  67. ^ Suzanne Stevens, Portland Business Journal. "Lattice hires Darin Billerbeck as CEO." Oct 12, 2010. Retrieved Dec 19, 2012.
  68. ^ John Edwards (June 1, 2006). "No room for Second Place Archived 2012-05-15 at the Wayback Machine." EDN. Retrieved May 10, 2012.

External links edit

  • Official website  
  • Business data for Lattice Semiconductor Corporation:

  Media related to Lattice Semiconductor at Wikimedia Commons