Credence acquires SZ Testsysteme
-- Test & Measurement World, 1/2/2003
Credence Systems (www.credence.com) announced January 2, 2003, that it has acquired all of the assets of SZ Testsysteme AG and SZ Testsysteme GmbH from the Klaus Christian Penner family for a total of approximately $4.7 million.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Credence now owns SZ Testsysteme's portfolio of automatic test equipment, which is primarily focused on the analog, power, automotive, and communications markets. The Credence-SZ business will operate as a division of Credence and will continue to develop, manufacture, and support the test systems from a facility in Amerang, Germany. Credence will also integrate all sales, service and applications support into its worldwide distribution network.
"Historically our strength and expertise have been in the mixed-signal test market, whereas SZ's focus has been primarily in the automotive test sector, a sector we believe will demonstrate strong, steady growth over the next five years," said Dr. Graham J. Siddall, chairman and chief executive officer of Credence Systems. The automotive semiconductor market generated revenues totaling over $13 billion in 2002, with total market revenues forecasted to reach $21 billion by 2006, according to Gartner Dataquest. With complex features being added to automobiles, it is expected that electronic control units (ECU) processors will drive demand for advanced ATE.
