Mergers and Acquisitions Boost Semiconductor Revenues to $307 Billion in 2011
Worldwide semiconductor revenues reached an impressive $306.8 billion in 2011, up $5.4 billion, or 1.8 percent from 2010. This is according to market research firm Gartner's report, "Market Share Analysis: Total Semiconductor Revenue, Worldwide, 2011." Apparently, the top 25 semiconductor vendors' revenue appeared to grow faster, at 3.1 percent, than the industry as a whole. This accounted for a larger portion of the industry's total revenue, which was 69.2 percent in 2011, compared with 68.3 percent in 2010.
However, about half of this growth was the result of mergers and acquisitions.
"Of the major device segments, microcomponents performed best in 2011 after a relative underperformance in 2010," says Peter Middleton, principal research analyst at Gartner.
"Within microcomponents, the subcategory that really drove this performance was compute microprocessors, which grew 14.2 percent year-on-year as a result of strong average selling prices (ASPs). This was driven both by servers and PCs, with the PC microprocessor market strongly benefiting from graphics integration."
Intel recorded a 20.7 per cent revenue gain and held the No. 1 market share position for the twentieth consecutive year. Last year represented Intel's highest-ever market share of 16.5 percent. Its previous high was back in 1998, when it controlled 16.3 percent share.
Table 1. Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors by Revenue, Worldwide, 2011 (Millions of Dollars)
|
Rank 2010 |
Rank 2011 |
Vendor |
2010 Revenue |
2011 Revenue |
2010-2011 Growth (%) |
2011 Market Share (%) |
|
1 |
Intel1 |
41,988 |
50,669 |
20.7 |
16.5 |
|
|
2 |
2 |
Samsung Electronics |
27,094 |
27,366 |
1.0 |
8.9 |
|
3 |
3 |
Toshiba |
12,360 |
11,769 |
-4.8 |
3.8 |
|
4 |
4 |
Texas Instruments2 |
11,827 |
11,754 |
-0.6 |
3.8 |
|
6 |
5 |
Renesas Electronics3 |
10,204 |
10,650 |
4.4 |
3.5 |
|
9 |
6 |
Qualcomm4 |
7,204 |
9,998 |
38.8 |
3.3 |
|
5 |
7 |
STMicroelectronics |
10,262 |
9,635 |
-6.1 |
3.1 |
|
7 |
8 |
Hynix Semiconductor |
9,884 |
9,388 |
-5.0 |
3.1 |
|
8 |
9 |
Micron Technology |
8,224 |
7,643 |
-7.1 |
2.5 |
|
10 |
10 |
Broadcom5 |
6,604 |
7,160 |
8.4 |
2.3 |
|
Others |
155,807 |
150,811 |
-3.2 |
49.1 |
||
|
Total Market |
301,458 |
306,843 |
1.8 |
100.0 |
1 Infineon's 2011 revenue excludes its wireless division, which was sold to Intel in the first quarter of 2011.
2 Texas Instruments acquired National Semiconductor in September 2011. The estimated calendar third and fourth quarters of National's 2011 revenue are attributed to Texas Instruments in 2011.
3 Renesas Electronics' 2010 revenue excludes Renesas Technology's first-quarter-of-2010 revenue.
4 Qualcomm's 2011 revenue includes three quarters of Atheros' revenue.
5 Broadcom acquired Provigent in the second quarter of 2011.
Second in line Samsung, was held back by DRAM weakness in 2011, so it was unable to close the gap with Intel. Toshiba and Texas Instruments retained their third- and fourth-place rankings respectively, while Renesas Electronics moved into the top five during its first full year as a combined company. Qualcomm was one of the winners with its semiconductor business increasing 39 percent in 2011 with nearly $10 billion in revenue. The firm continued togain shares in the smartphone market, and it was one of the fastest-growing semiconductor companies in 2011. At No. 10, Broadcom had a solid year, outperforming the overall semiconductor market, with particular strength in the mobile and wireless division, which recorded another year of double-digit growth.
But market share tables by themselves do not tell the whole story. More often than not, a strong or weak performance by a vendor is a result of the overall market growth of the device areas that the vendor participates in. Gartner's Relative Industry Performance index measures the difference between industry-specific growth for a company and actual growth, showing which are transforming their businesses by growing share or moving into new markets and choosing their customers wisely.
Market leaders in Gartner's Relative Industry Performance index include Qualcomm (which grew 17 per cent better than expected), Hynix (which grew 13 per cent better than expected) and Infineon (which grew 12 per cent better than expected). Disappointments in the Relative Industry Performance index include Panasonic, Elpida Memory and MediaTek.
