Intel → Altera
Intel paid $16.7bn in cash in 2015 for Altera, the programmable-chip maker already using Intel's factories, betting that FPGAs paired with Xeon processors would win in data centres; a decade later Intel sold control of Altera to Silver Lake at a valuation of $8.75bn.
An all-cash purchase at $54 a share of the FPGA maker, which Intel later part-divested to Silver Lake.
- Value
- $16.7B
- Announced
- June 2015
- Completed
- December 2015
- Sector
- Technology
- Deal type
- acquisition
- Acquirer
- Intel (United States)
- Target
- Altera (United States)
Why it mattered
The two companies had long been linked: Altera bought Intel's programmable-logic business in 1994, and under a 2013 agreement Intel manufactured Altera's FPGAs, making Altera one of the first foundry customers for its 14-nanometre process. Brian Krzanich, Intel's chief executive, wanted to offer Altera's chips with Xeon processors as integrated products for data centres and the Internet of Things.
Altera's merger proxy shows a long negotiation. Altera's board rejected $48 a share in January 2015, and later a written $50 proposal, which Intel said it would take public if necessary. Intel moved to $58 in February, but on 31 March, citing due diligence and Altera's expected first-quarter results, cut its "final" offer to $54 with no protection if competition regulators objected. Talks were reported to have ended in April. In May Altera countered at $56 with a $975m reverse termination fee; Intel held at $54 but accepted Altera's terms on antitrust approvals and a $500m reverse fee. The deal was announced on 1 June 2015 and closed on 28 December.
What it left behind
Altera became an Intel business unit, the Programmable Solutions Group. Xilinx, its long-time rival — in 2013 the two held 36% and 31% of the FPGA market — was later bought by AMD in an all-stock deal completed in February 2022. In October 2023 Intel said it would separate the unit, restored the Altera name in 2024 and made it an independent subsidiary on 1 January 2025. In April 2025 Intel's chief executive, Lip-Bu Tan, citing a lower expense structure and a stronger balance sheet, agreed to sell 51% to Silver Lake at a valuation of $8.75bn — about half the 2015 price — and dropped plans for a flotation. The sale closed on 12 September 2025; Intel's remaining 49% was carried at $3.2bn. A price agreed before due diligence is a ceiling rather than a floor: Intel's $58 became $54 once it had seen the books, and Altera's board used the gap to win the regulatory protections it had first been refused.