NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Feb. 15, 2005--Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (B+/Stable/--) announced its acquisition of SMaL Camera Technologies (SCT) for $43 million in cash. SCT, which provides digital image sensors for consumer-grade cameras, cell phones, and automotive vision systems, will augment Cypress' earlier acquisition of a high-end image sensing business. The acquisition will moderately depress Cypress' profitability over at least the near term. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said that the transaction would not affect its corporate credit rating or stable outlook on Cypress. At the same time, Cypress announced its plan to divest Silicon Magnetic Systems (SMS), a magnetic random access memory (MRAM) venture, which recently sampled its first product to several key customers after three years of development.
