De Brauw advises NXP Semiconductors on the divestment of NXP's Sound Solutions business, the leading provider of speaker and receiver components for the mobile handset market, to Dover Corporation for USD 855 million in cash.

The deal, set to close in the first quarter of 2011, also includes a strategic relationship in which NXP will become the exclusive provider of certain mixed-signal semiconductors to Dover's Knowles Electronics business, which makes components for hearing aids and other acoustic products.

“Combining the operations of Sound Solutions and Knowles represents another major milestone in our strategy of focusing on High Performance Mixed Signal markets, and it will help to further improve our capital structure,” said Rick Clemmer, President and CEO, NXP Semiconductors. “The micro-acoustic components market offers significant growth potential, which can be best achieved through a focused company, dedicated to this market and with a complete suite of complementary products required for a leadership position. We look forward to participating in that growth as a strategic supplier to Knowles going forward.” (Press release NXP, 22 December 2010).

Team: Arne Grimme, Dieter Wolff, Simon Staveley-Smith, Lennart Crain, Janneke van der Kroon, Mischa Menheere, Jean Lu, Geert Potjewijd, Rogier van Bijnen, Gertjan Kuipers, Daan van Binsbergen, Rens Bondrager, Henk van Ravenhorst, Erik Pijnacker Hordijk, Jiajia Gao.