Sanmina-SCI to Acquire Newisys

Agreement will create premier design/product provider in growing enterprise computing and storage sector Sanmina-SCI Corporation (Nasdaq: SANM) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Newisys, Inc., a privately-held developer of enterprise-classservers for global technology companies. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The principal closing conditions have been satisfied and the acquisition is expected to close in the next several business days.Newisys, based in Austin, Texas, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanmina-SCI and will add a strong competency and expertise in developing enterprise-class server technology, including a unique, non-disruptive transition from 32-bit to 64-bit computing. Newisys' technology will be combined with Sanmina-SCI's manufacturing services in Enterprise Computing and Storage, which include global manufacturing capabilities, industry leading order-fulfillment capabilities, and one of the largest global design and engineering organizations in the EMS industry. As a result, customers will be able to speed time-to-volume and reduce costs related to new product development. Furthermore, Sanmina-SCI will now be able to provide OEM customers with server platform designs that deliver flexibility with build-to-order and configure-to-order capabilities on a global basis."The addition of Newisys to the Sanmina-SCI family strengthens our continuing support of the Enterprise Computing and Storage Systems market segment," said Randy Furr, Sanmina-SCI President and Chief Operating Officer. "Newisys is a strategic fit with our recently-implemented Customer Focused Strategy, and furthers our ability to develop easy-to-deploy high-end ODM solutions that OEMs require. I welcome the Newisys employees to Sanmina-SCI."The acquisition of Newisys will establish Sanmina-SCI's technology leadership in the EMS industry by providing leading OEMs in Enterprise Computing and Storage markets with best-in class products and development roadmaps. These products and services will allow OEMs to seamlessly plan and deliver computing and storage solutions based on the most advanced chipsets and software technologies. This acquisition represents a significant enhancement to Sanmina-SCI's strong ODM thrust in select strategic segments, as illustrated by recent announcements of general availability of a full suite of InfiniBand ODM products."The acquisition of Newisys gives Sanmina-SCI additional skills that will help them deliver enterprise-quality server design," said Bob Moffat, Senior Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain, IBM Corporation. "This is an important capability for electronics manufacturers to have in today's marketplace.""For more than two years, Microsoft has worked with Newisys on Windows Server 2003-related technologies such as 64-bit capabilities, system management, and dynamic partitioning," said Brian Valentine, Senior Vice President, Windows Division, Microsoft Corporation. "The combination of Sanmina-SCI and Newisys will accelerate the availability of affordable, high quality, industry standard 64-bit computing."Newisys' unique capabilities in AMD Opteron(TM)-based 64-bit server technology, symmetric multiprocessing, and remote management distinguish it as a leader in standards-based, high performance server design for an array of applications. Additionally, the company's experience in ASICs, chipsets, BIOS, software, and systems management will augment Sanmina-SCI's ODM solution offerings for enterprise computing and storage OEMs."In addition to having some common OEM customers, Newisys and Sanmina-SCI share a commitment to leadership, quality, and innovation, making our partnership a natural progression," said Phil Hester, Newisys Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. "With the expected growth in the Enterprise Server market and our companies' combined design, engineering, manufacturing, and global "no touch" order fulfillment capability and experience, we have a real opportunity to capitalize on the market's migration from 32-bit to 64-bit designs."Sanmina-SCI will benefit from a wealth of intellectual property and a veteran team of hardware and software engineers with years of design experience from many industry leaders.Source: PCBnewsline