News

Power-One Acquires Magnetek’s Power Electronics Group

September 27, 2006 by Jeff Shepard

Power-One, Inc. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with Magnetek Inc. to acquire its Power Electronics Group. Magnetek specializes in the application of advanced power electronics technology to meet the needs of the global digital economy. Magnetek's Power Electronics Group sells power supplies and alternative energy products to a wide range of customers and markets. Under the terms of the agreement, Power-One will acquire Magnetek's Power Electronics Group (PEG) for $71.7 million in cash and assumption of approximately $16.7 million in debt. Power-One has obtained financing for the acquisition and the transaction is expected to close in October, 2006, subject to customary closing conditions.

"This acquisition will be additive to earnings per share, even without any synergies, and presents significant opportunities to further our strategic goals," said Steve Goldman, Chairman of Power-One. "This acquisition will increase Power-One's revenue by over 50%, and the overall purchase price of approximately 0.5x forecasted sales for 2007 makes it an excellent value. The Power Electronics Group has been an excellent contributor to Magnetek and its addition will augment Power-One in a number of ways, including adding low-cost manufacturing capability in China, custom design resources in Europe, and entry into the Alternative Energy market. In addition, we expect significant synergies from our increased purchasing power in the electronic components marketplace. Overall, we anticipate that the acquisition will favorably impact our financial performance increasingly throughout 2007 and 2008 as synergies are realized."

Bill Yeates, Chief Executive Officer, added, "The acquisition of Magnetek's PEG business unit advances our strategy to penetrate new markets and customers and enhances shareholder value since it should be accretive within the first full quarter of the combined company. As a result of the agreement and the excellent custom product engineering resources we acquire, we are now better positioned to service an ever-growing number of customer requests for custom products. The acquisition positions us as the 6th largest power supply company in the world. The combined purchasing power will enable us to continue to compete effectively in the higher-volume markets, including servers and storage. Additionally, through the acquisition we will have our own 230,000 square feet manufacturing plant in China that is designed for high-volume and low-cost production."

Yeates continued, "The synergy potential from this acquisition substantially exceeds that from any of our prior acquisitions. We are extremely impressed with Magnetek's R&D successes, creativity, and ability to design some of the highest efficiency power products in the world. Their digital prowess in power and software and microcontroller technologies nicely augment Power-One's board-level Z-One(R) Digital Power Management system. With this acquisition, we will add digital controls for motors, specialty transportation and system-level applications, and alternative energy, along with a premier customer list."

The Power Electronics Group is comprised of operations in Italy, Hungary, China and the United States with approximately 500,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space and 1,200 employees. The Power Electronics Group sells to OEMs and includes customers such as Alcatel, Electrolux, Google, IBM, Indesit, Motorola, and Siemens. Applications include servers, storage, alternative energy, telecom systems, intelligent control products, transportation, industrial, and other related industries. Needham & Company acted as exclusive financial advisor to Power-One in this transaction.