Growing Microsemi Buys One Firm, Increases Its Stake in Another to 80%

Continuing its recent acquisition binge, Santa Ana-based Microsemi said it has purchased a North Carolina computer products company and increased its stake in a San Jose technology firm to 80%.

Microsemi, a semiconductor products manufacturer, has agreed to purchase General Microcircuits of Mooresville, N.C., for an undisclosed amount of cash. General Microcircuits, with annual sales of about $1 million last year and 32 employees, manufactures custom-printed circuit boards for computers.

Microsemi also said it has increased from 50% to 80% its ownership of Surface Mounted Technology Corp., a San Jose company that manufactures printed circuit boards, computer chips and related components. Microsemi declined to provide financial details of the purchase.

The General Microcircuits deal, which is subject to the approval of that company’s shareholders, would be Microsemi’s seventh acquisition in the past 20 months. Nearly all of the purchase have involved small companies.

“We’ll probably slow down for a while,” said Microsemi Chairman Philip Frey Jr. “We’ll be going from $46 million in sales in 1987 to more than $90 million in 1988. That’s going to keep us going.”

Frey said the $90-million figure is based on the anticipated sales of Microsemi and some of its recently acquired companies.