Minnesota maker of chipmaking equipment is sold for $380M

CyberOptics Corp., the Golden Valley agency that’s Minnesota’s greatest participant within the semiconductor tools enterprise, is being bought by a bigger agency for $380 million in money.

Within the deal introduced Monday, Nordson Corp., based mostly in suburban Cleveland, will add CyberOptics’ tools for inspecting chips and testing the alignment of silicon wafers to its bigger portfolio of chipmaking instruments.

CyberOptics simply two weeks in the past reported that its first-half gross sales had been up 21% and it was on monitor for its first yr of income exceeding $100 million. Its enterprise will develop at a quicker price as a part of an organization with extra clients, mentioned Subodh Kulkarni, chief government at CyberOptics.

“The problem we as a small firm have had is an absence of following via world channels and scale,” Kulkarni mentioned. “With the mixture of Nordson’s scale and our expertise, we imagine the expansion will probably be considerably quicker going ahead.”

Nordson, which has annual income of round $2.5 billion, mentioned it will pay $54 a share for CyberOptics. That value represents a peak valuation for CyberOptics and 47% over the typical of its each day inventory value through the previous month.

Shares in CyberOptics soared 29% on Monday to $53.03.

Sundaram Nagarajan, chief government of Nordson, mentioned that CyberOptics’ 3D optical sensing expertise and wi-fi measurement sensors will broaden Nordson’s attain in chipmaking tools.

“We’ll put money into CyberOptics’ best alternatives for worthwhile progress whereas additionally offering some great benefits of our world enterprise infrastructure,” he mentioned in an announcement.

CyberOptics will stay in Golden Valley and its 200 staff will be a part of Nordson, which makes valves, meters, nozzles and different merchandise for chipmakers. It additionally makes sealants, coatings and different merchandise used within the aerospace, protection, development and automotive industries.

For a few years, CyberOptics was the one Minnesota agency whose market worth tracked with investor sentiment concerning the broader semiconductor trade. Its share worth tripled in 2016, for example, when CyberOptics rolled out new improvements and the chip cycle was on the upswing. It outperformed all different Minnesota-based shares that yr.

Beneath Kulkarni’s management over the past eight years, CyberOptics’ market worth grew tenfold. Its gross sales within the final 5 years grew a mean of 15%, together with the impact of a decline in 2019. And its order backlog reached a report $55 million this summer season.

“Within the final two years, the expansion price has been actually good. A part of that has been the pandemic and the semiconductor scarcity,” Kulkarni mentioned. “That has continued, however on the similar time we imagine the shortage of a worldwide [distribution] channel was hurting our total outcomes.”

Kulkarni mentioned he expects Nordson will ramp up improvement and manufacturing at CyberOptics, which additionally has a plant in Singapore.

“I’m fairly assured they may have the ability to develop quicker than what we’ve,” Kulkarni mentioned. “I anticipate our Golden Valley facility and corresponding Singapore facility to proceed to do effectively and proceed to develop jobs.”

The deal is predicted to shut by the top of the yr. Kulkarni’s position on the firm after the sale continues to be to be decided, he mentioned.