Intersil has agreed to acquire Zilker Labs, a Texas-based fabless semiconductor company specialising in digital power ICs.

Significantly, this is the third acquisition by Intersil over the past five months. In October, David Bell, CEO at Intersil, outlined his strategy for the company six months after taking over.  

"Despite the challenging economic environment, we remain committed to investing in key strategic acquisitions that broaden our product portfolio and improve our market position," said Dave Bell, CEO at Intersil.

"We believe the acquisition of Zilker Labs, along with the previously announced D2Audio and Kenet acquisitions, positions the company for strong growth," said Bell.

Zilker Labs has patented Digital-DC technology which is a mixed-signal power conversion and management architecture combining a digital loop synchronous switching regulator, adaptive mosfet drivers and a digital control interface into one IC.

"The Digital-DC products from Zilker Labs immediately establish Intersil as a technology leader in digital power management solutions for the communications, data processing, industrial and energy management markets," said Bell.

The boards of directors of both companies have approved the merger. The acquisition, which adds approximately $1.5m of additional operating expenses per quarter, is expected to become accretive by 2010.

See May 2008 interview - David Bell, Intersil