Chipmaker Microsemi sued

THE US Justice Department has sued chipmaker Microsemi in a bid to kill off its acquisition of Semicoa.

The DoJ thinks the $25 million acquisition is behind a move to drive prices up and quality down for semiconductors used by the US Defence Department and NASA.

An antitrust lawsuit filed yesterday claims Microsemi created a monopoly on small signal transistors when it bought Semicoa in July.

Performance and price of ultrafast recovery rectifier diodes suffered because the number of competing firms for the parts dropped from three to two, the lawsuit alleges.

The acquisition will result in higher costs, lower quality of service, and increased supply vulnerability to the Defence Department, the DoJ claims.

It also alleges that, immediately after the buyout, Microsemi raised its prices "significantly" on small signal transistors because it knew that government customers couldn't use lower-grade and cheaper components that don't meet the military's technical specifications.

Microsemi threatened to impose on buyers less favourable terms of service than customers had seen before the buyout, the DoJ said.

Microsemi is refusing to comment on the court case. µ

L'INQ
AP