Teradyne buys Nextest Systems for $325 million

Teradyne, Inc. of North Reading said today it has agreed to buy Nextest Systems Corp. of California and added that the aggregate purchase price is expected to be about $325 million.

Teradyne is a supplier of automatic test equipment products, including the System-On-Chip , or SOC, test; Nextest's core business is the design and manufacture of flash-memory test products.

As a result of the acquisition, Teradyne said it will expand its served market into the fast-growing flash memory test segment, estimated to have been more than $700 million in 2006.

Of Nextest's $95.8 million in revenue in calendar year 2006, flash memory tester sales totaled about $80 million, Teradyne noted.

Under terms of the agreement unanimously approved by both boards of directors, Teradyne said it will pay $20 per share in cash for all the outstanding shares of Nextest.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)