ON Semiconductor Connectivity Solutions (ранее Quantenna Communications)

An American developer of solutions for high-speed wireless Wi-Fi networks based in San Jose, California, which was acquired in 2019 by the chip manufacturer ON Semiconductor. ON Semiconductor is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

History

2023: Liquidation of the design center in Russia

As TAdviser found out, since mid-March 2023, the St. Petersburg Quanquenna Communications company, which was formed in 2012, has been in liquidation^[1] by the American chip developer Wi-Fi Quanna Communications as part of a joint project with "."Rusnano

In 2019, the American chipmaker ON Semiconductor bought Quantum Communications for $1 billion, and since this year, the new owner's legal entity, ON Semiconductor Electricity Solutions, Inc., has been listed as the 100% founder of the Russian Quanterna Enterprise.

In 2022, many Western ICT companies decided to curtail their activities in Russia, explaining this by their position on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict or the economic and logistical difficulties of doing business amid sanctions. However, the reasons for the liquidation of "Quanterna Communities" are different.

The annual report of ON Semiconductor on the form of 10-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicates that in September 2022 the company of the year decided to generally curtail the division represented by the legacy of Cantenna Communications. As part of this plan, in October 2022, the design center was discontinued in Russia, as well as in Australia, according to the^[2]

Along with the Russian design center, ON Semiconductor also covered the division of the former Quantum Communications in Australia

The direction presented by the former Cantenna Communications accounted for less than 2% of ON Semiconductor's consolidated revenue in 2022, and the latter decided to abandon it as well and direct investments to more priority areas of its business.

Since 2012, Rusnano has been a shareholder of Cantenna Communications: the state corporation has invested about $20 million in the company. But at the end of 2018, shortly before the announcement of the sale of Quantum Communications to the new owner, Rusnano left the shareholders, having raised $43 million for its share^[3].

Managing Director for Investment Activities of Rusnano Management Company, Rusnano USA CEO Dmitry Akhanov in 2019 called this investment "one of the most profitable in the history of the company" and noted that with the help of Quantum Communications it was possible to transfer technologies and open a research and development division in Russia.

At the time of opening in 2012, the St. Petersburg design center Cantenna Communications was positioned by Rusnano as the first in Russia where specialists will work on a full cycle of developing Wi-Fi technologies - from algorithms and system architecture to industrial designs. Quanterna Communities participated in the design of microcircuits for 45 and 28 nm processes. The company was a member of the Skolkovo project to create next-generation high-performance wireless systems.

In August 2022, Quanterna Komyunikashens voluntarily left the register of Skolkovo project participants, but continued to carry out activities in the field of research, development and technological work (NIOKTR) related to the creation of new products and technologies or to the improvement of manufactured products and technologies, according to explanations to the financial reporting of Quanterna Komyunikashens for 2022, published in the database of the Federal Tax Service.

In 2022, Quanterna Communications earned 489 million rubles on services provided by ON Semiconductor Connectivity Solutions (formerly Quanenna Communications), 39% more than in 2021.

The explanations for the company's financial reporting also indicate that at the end of 2021, Quanterna Communities employed 80 people, and at the end of 2022, only 2 people. Due to the suspension of the company's operating activities and the beginning of the liquidation process, employees were dismissed by agreement of the parties.

2019: ON Semiconductor buys Cantenna for $1bn

At the end of March 2019, it was announced the sale of Quantum to the American chipmaker ON Semiconductor for $1 billion. The deal was announced a month and a half after Rusnano Corporation withdrew from the share capital of Cantenna.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cantenna shareholders will receive $24.5 for each security they own, which is about 20% higher than the quotation rate the day before the transaction was announced. The press release clarifies that as part of the transaction, Cantenna is valued at $936 million, since the company has $136 million of its funds, which will go to ON Semiconductor.

WiFi chip manufacturer Cantenna sold for $1 billion after Rusnano leaves it

ON Semiconductor will pay for the acquisition from its own funds without involving the stock in the transaction. It is planned to finalize the sale of Cantenna in the second quarter of 2019, previously the contract must be approved by regulators and shareholders of Cantenna.

According to Keith Jackson, CEO and President of ON Semiconductor, the company, having absorbed Quantum, will be able to strengthen its range of wireless products thanks to the software and WiFi technologies of the purchased chipmaker. Until now, the ON Semiconductor wireless portfolio has included mainly radio frequency transceivers with support for Bluetooth, Sigfox, ZigBee, Threat, 6LoWPAN, etc.

The acquisition of Cantenna will be another step towards strengthening our presence in the industrial and automotive markets, says Jackson. - A combination of ON Semiconductor's expertise in highly efficient power management and broad sales and distribution coverage, as well as ON Semiconductor's market-leading Wi-Fi technology and software, creates a powerful platform to operate in the fast-growing markets of low-power networking solutions for industrial and automotive products.[4]

Fabless company (faceless company) Cantenna develops and manufactures chips and modules for Wi-Fi equipment using 45 nm and 28 nm technology. Its MIMO 8x8 and MIMO 4x4 technologies meet users' high requirements for Wi-Fi performance: data transfer rate, signal range, reliability of wireless networks and connection simultaneously with a large number of devices. Wi-Fi chips and Quantum modules provide sufficient signal quality for "heavy content" - 4KUltra HD video, online games, IP telephony, cloud computing and other big data packets at relatively low power consumption.

As of February 2019, fifty customers of Cantenna include global telecom operators such as Telefonica, Swisscom, BskyB, France Telecom, Comcast, Orange and AT & T. The company's solutions are used in the products of such IT vendors as Motorola, Cisco, Samsung and Huawei, both for cable and satellite television systems and for home Wi-Fi in the retail market. Cantenna launched the 8x8 MIMO Wi-Fi chip on the market, which allows you to provide speeds of 10 Gb/s.

2018: Rusnano sold its stake in Cantenna for 2.8 billion rubles

On February 14, 2019, Rusnano JSC announced that it had completed its exit from the portfolio company Quantum Communications. The Quantum stake was sold through the sale of shares on the stock exchange for a total of $43 million (2.8 billion rubles), the exit was completed at the end of December 2018. The yield on the output (IRR) in relation to investments in the project is 28.9% in ruble terms. During RUSNANO's participation in Cantenna, the cost of the package in rubles increased by more than 4 times.

As of February 13, the company's capitalization on the American stock exchange NASDAQ amounted to more than $670 million. The company's revenue during the period of RUSNANO's participation grew at an average rate of 45% per year and exceeded $220 million at the end of 2018. In addition to RUSNANO, Quantum investors were large venture capital funds (Sequoia Capital, Venrock, Sigma Partners, DAG, etc.), as well as strategic investors in telecommunications (Telefonica, CSR, Swisscom).

Under an agreement with RUSNANO, Cantenna Communications opened Russia a center in R&D - Quanterna Communications LLC, which made it possible to optimize product development costs by 60%. The Russian division has developed a cloud Wi-Fi analytics and monitoring platform that remotely diagnoses and fixes network problems. This technology is integrated into all chipsets sold by Cantenna. Thanks to the Russian division, Cantenna became a client, a MGTS Moscow broadband operator by. The R&D GPON technologies Center, located in, St. Petersburg Skolkovo is a resident, with more than 60 employees as of February 2019. The investment of the American company in the Russian division until 2020 will amount to $13 million.

RUSNANO's investment in innovative Wi-Fi network technology turned out to be one of the most profitable in the history of the company. Cantenna is an example of a project that not only grew before our eyes into a globally popular product and successfully entered the IPO, but also carried out the transfer of microelectronic technology to the Russian market. Using the example of our portfolio companies from the USA, we see the effectiveness of the model of technological transfer and the opening of R&D divisions of companies in Russia - both for the companies themselves and for Rusnano as an investor.

2016: Raising more than $100 million during IPO

In October 2016, Cantenna completed IPO NASDAQ on the stock exchange, on which it raised more than $100 million. dollars

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