While many already considered it a done-deal, officially Altera Corp. has become a part of Intel Corp. in a deal valued at about $16.7 billion.
The deal will give Intel access to Altera’s high performance field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and system-on-chips (SoCs) for use in the data center and Internet of Things (IoT) market segments. Given the decline in PCs in 2015, Intel has made a concerted effort to focus on product markets outside of the general computer space specifically IoT, data center, cloud computing and infrastructure. This acquisition gives the microprocessor giant a further step in that direction (Read: Altera Buy Will Help Intel Move Beyond PCs).
Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, says the company will apply Moore’s Law to grow its FPGA business and accelerate the next-generation of electronics in autonomous driving and machine learning.
Altera will operate as a new Intel business unit called the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG) led by Altera veteran Dan McNamara who will serve as corporate VP and GM. Intel says the PSG will work closely with the Data Center Group and IoT Group inside Intel for collaboration of integrated products.
