Cipio Partners acquires Infineon Ventures

Cipio Partners has acquired the corporate venture capital portfolio of Infineon Technologies AG. The portfolio, invested by Infineon Ventures GmbH since 1998, comprises approximately 30 direct investments as well as several fund investments, positioning it as one of the largest corporate venture capital funds in Europe. Cipio Partners led the transaction jointly with LGT Capital Partners.

The Infineon Ventures portfolio includes a range of fast growing companies in the areas of semiconductor, micro-electronics and communications technology headquartered in North America, Europe and Israel. Among these are BridgeCo (Zurich, Switzerland), a leading vendor of rich media networking ICs and software; BroadbusTechnologies, Inc. (Boxborough, MA), a fast growing developer of next-generation video servers; and MontaVista Software Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA), the leading vendor of “embedded Linux” solutions.

The purchase of Infineon Ventures represents Cipio Partners’ fourth major acquisition of venture capital assets built by a large German corporate parent. As recently as September and November 2004, Cipio completed the purchase of part of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Venture portfolio and the private equity portfolio of DaimlerChrysler AG.

Infineon Technologies AG put its venture capital arm on the market in late October 2004. “This disposal forms part of a strategy strictly aimed at focusing us on our core business,” says Dominik Asam, senior vice president investor relations, mergers & acquisitions, ventures of Infineon Technologies AG.