Jazz Semiconductor
Logo in 2006 before acquisitions |
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Integrated circuit fabrication |
| Founded | February 2002 |
| Parent | Tower Semiconductor |
| Website | www |
Jazz Semiconductor is a US-based semiconductor wafer foundry that serves customers targeting wireless, optical networking, power management, storage, aerospace/defense and other applications. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, Jazz passed through a number of acquisitions including the short-lived company Acquicor Technology, which renamed itself Jazz Technologies and then sold it two years later.
Jazz Semiconductor Systems was founded on February 15, 2002, renamed itself Specialtysemi, Inc. later in February 2002 and to Jazz Semiconductor, Inc. in May 2002. Prior to March 12, 2002, it was Conexant's fabrication facility, as subsidiary Newport Fab, LLC. It was initially funded by Conexant and affiliates of the Carlyle Group. Shu Li was its chief executive since May 2002. RF Micro Devices invested $60 million in October 2002, and became a customer. Jazz reported losses for each year of 2003, 2004, and 2005. It filed for an attempted initial public offering (IPO) several times from January 2004 through July 2006, to be listed on Nasdaq under symbol JAZZ, but failed to attract investor interest.
Acquicor Management LLC was jointly formed by Gil Amelio, Steve Wozniak and Ellen Hancock, all of whom had worked for Apple Computer. Founded in August 2005, Amelio was Acquicor's chief executive. Acquicor Technology was known as a blank-check company: it existed only to make acquisitions in unspecified areas of the technology sector, with the management partnership as its only stock-holder. It filed for an IPO of its own in February 2006, expected to raise about $142 million adopting the symbol AQR on the . Although the company had to disclose that it had no revenues nor products, and companies previously led by its principals had failed, the celebrity status of the founders attracted attention. The demand for the March 14 IPO caused an exercise of the over-allotment, resulting in net proceeds of $164 million. One analyst said it was "faith-based investing taken to the extreme".
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