Semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation announced that it has entered into small minority investments and partnership agreements with both Technoprobe SpA and FormFactor, Inc. Advantest is in discussions with, and will continue to evaluate investments in, additional probe card manufacturers as well as other critical semiconductor-industry supply chain companies.
Regarding the Technoprobe investment, Advantest acquired 2.5% of Technoprobe’s outstanding primary shares from T-Plus S.p.A, Technoprobe’s controlling shareholder, in an off-market transaction. Advantest will separately purchase a small minority equity position directly from FormFactor, although the amount is not disclosed. As part of both investments, Advantest has formed strategic partnerships with each that involve technology and printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing collaboration. Advantest will not be taking board seats or have any governance role at either FormFactor or Technoprobe.
As wafer-level test becomes an increasingly important component of production test insertion – especially for the testing of high-performance computing-related semiconductors – close collaboration between Advantest and the semiconductor supply chain has become critical to delivering high-performance total test solutions to Advantest customers. As the world’s leading automatic test equipment (ATE) supplier, Advantest has made investments in and formed partnerships with these leading probe-card makers to support the industry, to ensure its customers have access to multiple, viable probe-card suppliers, and to enable technical collaboration that results in high-performance, total testing solutions that meet customers’ future testing needs.
Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Advantest in both the Technoprobe and FormFactor transactions.
