产业界对中国无晶圆厂IC设计业者锐迪科微电子(RDA Microelectroics)与展讯通信(Spreadtrum Communications)考虑合并的传言已久，这可能有一定程度上的现实基础，但锐迪科看来是在等待出价更高的买主。
几个月来，市场传言展讯有意收购擅长手机与网络应用RF/混合讯号无线SoC的锐迪科；产业观察家咸认，这两家总部都位于上海的无晶圆厂IC设计业者的合并是理想交易，因为锐迪科能为展讯的基频芯片提供低成本RF解决方案。
展讯是全球最大移动通信业者(用户数达7亿)中国移动(China Mobile)的 TD-SCDMA 基频芯片主要供货商；锐迪科则是中国市场的功率放大器、蓝牙与FM芯片领导供货商。
在被问到有关收购的问题时，锐迪科CEO戴保家(Vincent Tai)断然否认该公司与展讯之间将有任何交易在短期内发生，他表示两家公司从未正式讨论过这个议题，只能算曾经交换过一些有关未来发展的想法。
锐迪科CEO戴保家(Vincent Tai)
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但 在同样的问题上，展讯CEO李力游的说法却不同，他坦承：“我们考虑过(收购锐迪科)。”不过李力游视锐迪科为一家“零组件公司(component company)”，能为展讯带来的价值有限。“如果我们要花钱，会想买一家软件工程师多一点的公司。”李力游轻描淡写地将展讯与锐迪科合并传言形容为不 会发生的“去年的故事。”
展讯CEO李力游
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本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
第2页：锐迪科没有理由被展讯甚至是高通收购
第3页：以无人能敌的低成本解决方案，深入那些不被关注的市场
相关阅读：
• 本土厂商走自己的路，让外企在中国无路可走
• 高速发展的中国IC公司面临哪些挑战？
• 不和高通苹果拼高端，展讯在中低端市场很滋润mLAesmc
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无论那是否只是故事，戴保家在最近接受EETimes美国版编辑访问时仍透露，对投资了2,000 美元资金在2004年共同创立锐迪科的Warburg Pincus来说，看到投资报酬的：“时机快到了。”锐迪科在2010年11月于美国那斯达克(NASDAQ)股市首次公开上市。
而戴保家也认为锐迪科没有理由被展讯甚至是高通(Qualcomm)──另一家传闻中的锐迪科潜在买主──收购；他指出，企业发动并购通常有三个动机：一是消灭对手、二是收购IP，三是两家公司能组合成更强大的一家公司，但以上三者都不适用于目前的锐迪科。
戴保家指出，因为锐迪科：“已经是中国市场第一名的功率放大器、蓝牙、FM与DVB-S调谐器芯片供货商。”而且针对有人指锐迪科缺乏基频技术，该公司已经证明那些说法是错的。
去年锐迪科推出诉求高性能、低成本的RDA8851系统单芯片，采用55纳米制程，整合了GSM基频、四频RF收发器、电源管理单元、蓝牙/FM收发器；戴保家表示，从那时候起：“我们已经成为GSM基频芯片的第二大供货商。”
锐迪科是少数能在CMOS单芯片上整合RF收发器与基频的供货商，该公司表示，相较于竞争对手提供的系统级封装方案，RDA8851可免除搭配32k石英晶体与SAW滤波器的需求，因此降低成本、功耗，同时节省电路板空间。
戴保家透露，锐迪科将在接下来几周推出针对EDGE智能手机应用的40纳米制程基频/RF收发器单芯片样品，而WCDMA版本芯片则将在今年第四季推出。锐迪科是在去年收购一家中国芯片业者互芯(Coolsand Holding)的IP，取得了基频技术能力。
以戴保家的观点，锐迪科已经有Wi-Fi、有蓝牙，基频技术策略也准备就绪，所以为何要卖给别人？“当然，话千万别说死；如果有合理的出价，我们也会考虑。”他紧接着补充：“但是，我很贪心的。”
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
第3页：以无人能敌的低成本解决方案，深入那些不被关注的市场
相关阅读：
• 本土厂商走自己的路，让外企在中国无路可走
• 高速发展的中国IC公司面临哪些挑战？
• 不和高通苹果拼高端，展讯在中低端市场很滋润mLAesmc
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在全球手机市场已经发展到这个阶段的此刻，涉足已经逐渐萎缩的GSM、EDGE与WCDMA市场似乎违反常理；但锐迪科挟无人能敌的低成本解决方案，深入一个可能在短时间内就不被关注的市场，却让该公司获致成功。
“在印度乡下以及非洲，还有大量来自初次购买手机的需求，这类消费者正在寻找低价、以语音功能为主的手机。”戴保家表示，锐迪科的GSM基频业务毛利率超过35%，利润很高。
而且戴保家并不认为锐迪科的GSM芯片只能应用在手机，着眼于其低成本以及较低数据传输速率：“我在想是否能将GSM技术打入物联网(IoT)市场。”他进一步说明，中国的物联网市场尚未起步，但：“我们会为该应用做准备。”
戴保家也提及了该公司仍在开发阶段的CMOS功率放大器技术，以及考虑进军电视芯片市场的计划。虽然以上市场都已经有主要供货商，但他表示，客户都会希望有更多选择，也会寻找替代解决方案，那就会是该公司的切入点。
藉由已经准备好的产品，以及未来进军新市场(Edge/WCDMA基频、电视、物联网)的积极计划，戴保家希望能展示他已经在短时间之内显著提升了锐迪科的身价。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
编译：Judith Cheng
参考英文原文：China fabless: RDA for sale at 'fair price'，by Junko Yoshida
相关阅读：
• 本土厂商走自己的路，让外企在中国无路可走
• 高速发展的中国IC公司面临哪些挑战？
• 不和高通苹果拼高端，展讯在中低端市场很滋润mLAesmc
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China fabless: RDA for sale at 'fair price'
Junko Yoshida
Speculation has it that Spreadtrum is poised to acquire fabless chip company, but RDA may be looking for a better deal.
SHANGHAI–Persistent speculation about a pending merger between Chinese fabless chip vendors RDA Microelectroics and Spreadtrum Communications may have some basis in reality, but word is that RDA has its sights set on a higher bidder.
For months, rumor has had it that Spreadtrum is poised to buy RDA, which specializes in radio-frequency and mixed-signal wireless SoCs for cellular and connectivity. Industry observers pegged the potential deal between the two leading Shanghai-based fablesses as ideal, since RDA can provide genuinely low-cost RF solutions to Spreadtrum’s leading baseband chips.
Spreadtrum—armed with its TD-SCDMA baseband chips—has dominated the handset market for China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator by subscriber count (700 million). Meanwhile, RDA has been China’s leading provider of power amplifiers, Bluetooth and FM tuners.
Asked about the speculation during a recent interview, Vincent Tai (below), CEO of RDA , flatly denied any imminent deal with Spreadtrum.
“We’ve never talked,” claimed Tai. “OK, we may have said to each other, at one point, we should look into the future,” he added, but that never led to any serious discussion.
Leo Li, Spreadtrum’s CEO, paints a different picture.
“We considered it [the acquisition of RDA],” Li acknowledged. However, after having looked into it, Li now sees RDA as “a component company,” which can add little value to Spreadtrum. “If we spend any money, we want a company with a lot more software engineers,” said Li. He continued to downplay a Spreadtrum-RDA deal that never took place as “last year’s story.”
For sale at what price?
Last year’s story or not, RDA’s Tai acknowledged in a recent interview here that the “time is coming soon” for Warburg Pincus, who provided $20 million in seed money for RDA, to start looking for return on his investment. Pincus co-founded RDA in 2004. RDA completed an IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange in November 2010.
Tai, however, sees little reason for RDA’s acquisition by either Spreadtrum, or even Qualcomm (another company rumored as a potential buyer).
According to Tai, company acquisitions tend to be driven by three factors: killing the competition, acquiring IP the idea that the merger will result in a strong company.
To Tai, none of the scenarios is applicable to RDA today.
It’s because RDA is “already the number one provider of power amplifiers, Bluetooth, FM tuners, DVB-S tuners in China,” claimed Tai. To those who criticized RDA for its lack of baseband offerings, RDA has already proven them wrong. RDA last year rolled out RDA8851, a high-performance, low-cost SoC that integrates the GSM baseband, quad-band RF transceiver, power management unit, Bluetooth and FM receiver in a single-chip 55-nanometer design. Since then, “we’ve already become the number two supplier in GSM baseband,” noted Tai.
RDA is one of few chip vendors capable of integrating an RF transceiver and baseband on a single CMOS die. Compared to competitors’ system-in-package solutions, RDA8851 eliminates the need for the 32k crystal and SAW filter, thus significantly reducing cost, power consumption and board space, according to RDA.
RDA will start sampling “within the next couple of weeks” a single-die, integrated baseband/RF transceiver solution -- using 40-nm process -- for EDGE smartphones, Tai said. WCDMA version will follow in the fourth quarter this year.
Baseband IPs from Coolsand
Enabling RDA to add a series of baseband products alongside its RF and mixed-signal offerings for handsets is Coolsand Holding Co. (a privately held baseband company with business operations in China). RDA last year acquired intellectual property from Coolsand.
From Tai’s point of view, RDA already checked off WiFi and Bluetooth. RDA has already put in place its baseband strategy. So why would RDA need to sell itself to any one? “Of course, never say never. At a fair price, we may consider it,” said Tai. “But I’m greedy," he quickly added.
Why go after the trailing edge market?
Going for GSM, EDGE and WCDMA at this stage of the global cellular market development appears counter-intuitive. Demand for such cellular basebands for handsets are in decline, not on the rise.
But zooming in on what may soon become an underserved market with a very low-cost solution that nobody else can match is a strategy that has fueled RDA’s success so far. Tai said, “There is a large demand for first-time handset buyers in rural India and Africa, looking for very low-end voice-centric phones.” Noting that RDA’s gross margin for its GSM baseband (RDA8851) is more than 35 percent, Tai described it as a very profitable GSM solution.
RDA’s CEO isn’t thinking about its GSM chip just for cell phones, though. At its low data-rate for communication and very low cost, “I’m thinking about going after the Internet of Things (IoT) market with GSM.” While Tai doesn’t believe the IoT market is here yet, he made it clear, “We want to be prepared for it.”
CMOS power amplifiers
Qualcomm isn’t the only company pitting CMOS against GaAs for cellphone front ends. (Qualcomm has recently introduced a CMOS radio frequency IC family, for use in the mobile phones that is expected to validate and stimulate the use of CMOS for multi-band power amplifiers.)
RDA is currently working on the integration of PA into the company’s single-die CMOS GSA baseband/transceiver chip. He added, “If we can get that done, it can definitely solve the high cost issues of IoT.”
RDA’s CMOS PA project, however, is still under development. “But we are making a serious attempt. If I didn’t think we had a chance, I wouldn’t be talking about it now,” Tai said. RDA has a solid R&D team working on the project under CTO Shuran Wei, who has two decades of experience in CMOS RF integrated circuit design. Before co-founding RDA with Tai and Pincus, Wei worked at Analogix, Marvell and LSI.
TV business
RDA also plans to branch out of the mobile phone chip market.
Already the No. 1 DVB-S Tuner chip supplier in China, RDA is poised to move into the TV market. The Shanghai-based company more than a year ago signed an IP license and development agreement with Trident Microsystems, under which RDA secured a non-exclusive, worldwide, non-transferrable license to develop, manufacture and sell derivative versions of the Trident SX5 digital TV SoC platform for a period of 10 years.
Acknowledging that “we’re still new to this market and we have lots to learn,” Tai said that RDA will first enter the TV market with “multimedia TV products.” Rather than going straight into the full-blown smart TV market, RDA will test the waters with chips offering lower-end limited multimedia functions.
The TV market, however, won’t be an easy segment for RDA to crack, especially since today’s market is totally dominated by MStar and MediaTek, two Taiwanese chip companies scheduled to merge soon. Tai said, “If those two Taiwanese giants merge, I actually see more opportunities for us.”
How's that?
“Because customers want to see more choices, and they’ll seek alternatives,” said Tai. “That’s where we hope to come in.”
With all the new products RDA has in store and the company’s aggressive plans to enter new market segments (basebands for Edge and WCDMA; multimedia TV; IoT, etc.), Tai hopes to demonstrate that he has substantially increased the value for RDA compared to what it was only a year ago.
RDA's stock prices over the past 12 months
责编：Quentin
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