Cypress Semiconductor Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor design and manufacturing company founded by T. J. Rodgers and others from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and development of high speed CMOS SRAMs, EEPROMs, PAL devices, and TTL logic devices. Two years after going public the company switched from the NASDAQ to the New York Stock Exchange. In October 2009, the company announced it would switch its listing to the NASDAQ on November 12, 2009. Its headquarters are in San Jose, California, and it has divisions in the United States, Ireland, India and the Philippines as well as a fabrication plant in Minnesota.

Cypress Intro

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation makes the processors and chips that go into computers, phones, and other integrated electronic devices. Cypress' product portfolio has two segments. First, there are commodity products for timing and communication - an example is a USB controller integrated into a mouse or a digital camera, allowing communication between the device and a computer. Cypress also sells newer programmable chips that can conduct multiple tasks at lower cost since they combine functionalities spread across multiple chips. These newer devices can compute and communicate for devices such as mp3 players, laptop computers, and other household appliances. The majority of Cypress' revenues still come from the legacy business, although the company's focus is to develop the higher-margin programmable chip business.

While CY was a majority holder of SunPower (SPWRA), it completed a spin-off of the company in late 2008.

From a manufacturing standpoint, the majority of Cypress' work is conducted in-house, with only a small portion outsourced to foundries, in contrast with many competitors such as QUALCOMM (QCOM) or Broadcom (BRCM) that have switched to "fabless" outsourcing to foundries. This leads to a higher cost structure for Cypress, since it must handle its own manufacturing. However, it also means it does not have to invest capital into designing processes and products that meet foundry requirements for outsourcing.

Business Overview

Business & Financial Metrics

In 2009, CY incurred a net loss of $150.4 million on total revenues of $667.8 million. This represents a 47.2% reduction in net loss on a 12.8% decrease in revenues from 2008, when the company lost $284.9 million on revenues of $765.7 million.

Business Segments
The company is organized into three main segments and SunPower (a majority-owned subsidiary offering solar power products).

Consumer and Computations Division (41.2% of total revenues)
This segment makes general purpose timing products, USBs and programmable systems on chips (PsoCs).

Data Communication Division (14.5% of total revenues)
This segment makes data communications devices for wireless handsets and video systems.

Memory Product Division (43.2% of total revenues)
This segment offers SRAM memory and image sensors.

Emerging Technologies and Other (1.2% of total revenues)
This segment incorporates the operations of Cypress Envirosystems, AgigA Tech, Optical Navigation Systems, Chinese operations, and various corporate operations.

Acquisition strategy

Since its founding, Cypress has acted as an incubator for wholly owned subsidiaries which are given a degree of autonomy and has acquired other small technology companies reverse engineering. In addition, Cypress has been an active acquirer of smaller technology companies; since the early-1990s these acquisitions have included:
Timing Technology:
IC Design
IC Works
Chip Decapsulation
International Microcircuits Inc.
USB Technology:
Anchor Chips
In-System Design
ScanLogic
PSoC Technology:
Cypress Microsystems
RAM Technology:
Galvantech, Inc.
Cascade Semiconductor Corporation
Simtek
Ramtron
maker together comunity
Radio Frequency Technology:
Alation
RadioCom
Solar Cell Technology
SunPower (distributed to CY shareholders in 2008 as SPWRB stock)
PowerLight
snaileye
Image Sensors
Silicon Light Machines
FillFactory (sold to ON Semiconductor)
SMaL Camera Technologies(Sold to Sensata Technologies in 2007)
Datacom/Telecom
Arcus
Silicon Packets
晶圆去层拍照SEM
HiBand Semiconductors