Editing PMC-Sierra (section)

== History ==
[[File:PMC Sierra - pano-sm.jpg|thumb|240px|Burnaby, Canada PMC-Sierra Building]]

Sierra Semiconductor was founded in 1984 in [[San Jose, California]] by James Diller.<ref name="plug"/> It received funding on January 11, 1984 from [[Sequoia Capital]], and went public in 1991.

Pacific Microelectronics Centre (PMC) in [[Burnaby, British Columbia]], Canada, was spun off from Microtel Pacific Research (the research arm of [[BC TEL]] at the time) to develop [[Asynchronous Transfer Mode]] (ATM) and later [[SONET]] [[integrated circuit]]s (chips). With investment from Sierra Semiconductor, PMC was established in 1992 as a private company focused on providing networking semiconductors, and became a wholly owned, independently operated subsidiary of Sierra Semiconductor in 1994. Microtel is part of [[Verizon Communications]].

In 1995, using ideas from UBC Electrical Engineering students, PMC revolutionized the optical networking chipset market with the first OC-12 (622&nbsp;Mbit/s) S/UNI transceiver chips. This circuit-design breakthrough put the company 3 years ahead of Bell Labs in its optical transceiver development.<ref name="oc12-suni" />

In August 1996, Sierra Semiconductor announced its decision to exit the personal computer modem chipset business, to restructure its other non-networking products and focus on its networking products. 150 employees were made redundant.<ref name="modem"/> In late 1996, it acquired [[Bipolar Integrated Technology]] in [[Beaverton, Oregon]], for about $10 million to enter the [[Ethernet]] business. The headquarters was moved to Burnaby, and in June 1997, PMC Sierra overtook its parent, Sierra Semiconductor, changing its name to ''PMC-Sierra''.<ref name="findarticles"/> It acquired Integrated Telecom Technology Inc., San Jose, for $55 million in cash and stock in 1998.<ref name="plug" />

Between 2001 and 2015 the company had multiple rounds of layoffs. In 2001, 350 employees, or 24% of the total workforce, were laid off.<ref name="edn-1"/><ref name="marketwatch"/> Then in January 2003, 176 employees were laid off<ref name="marketwatch-1"/> and in June 2005, 89 employees were laid off.<ref name="edn-2"/> In August 2006, 30 to 40 employees were laid off.<ref name="edn-3"/> In 2007 two rounds of layoffs happened, first in March 2007, 175 employees were laid off<ref name="edn-4"/> and then in December 2007, 18 employees were laid off.<ref name="SEC-3"/> In July 2015, roughly 200 employees were laid off as part of a restructuring measure.<ref name="Q2-2015"/>

In May 2006, PMC-Sierra acquired Passave, Inc., a developer of [[system-on-chip]] semiconductors for the [[fiber to the home]] access market in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $300 million. Passave was headquartered in [[Boston]] and had a development center in [[Tel Aviv]], Israel.<ref name="marketwatch-2"/> On October 22, 2010, PMC-Sierra acquired Wintegra Inc. for $240 million. Wintegra had 165 employees with the majority of its development team located in [[Raanana]], Israel, and [[Austin, Texas]].<ref name="Globes"/> A further acquisition was made on the 29th of May 2013 when PMC acquired IDT's Enterprise Flash Controller Business.<ref name="sr-1"/>

During the fall of 2015, both [[Skyworks Solutions]]<ref>{{cite news |title=Skyworks to Acquire PMC-Sierra for $2 Billion in Cash |date=2015-10-05 |publisher=[[Business Wire]] |url=http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151005006797/en/ |archive-date=2015-10-09 |access-date=2015-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009023509/http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151005006797/en |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Microsemi]]<ref>{{cite news |title=Microsemi Corporation Announces Superior Proposal to Acquire PMC-Sierra, Inc. for $11.50 Per Share With Intent to Close in December 2015 |date=2015-10-19 |url=http://investor.microsemi.com/2015-10-19-Microsemi-Corporation-Announces-Superior-Proposal-to-Acquire-PMC-Sierra-Inc-for-11-50-Per-Share-With-Intent-to-Close-in-December-2015 |archive-date=2015-10-21 |access-date=2015-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151021231644/http://investor.microsemi.com/2015-10-19-Microsemi-Corporation-Announces-Superior-Proposal-to-Acquire-PMC-Sierra-Inc-for-11-50-Per-Share-With-Intent-to-Close-in-December-2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> were attempting to acquire PMC-Sierra. On November 24, 2015, Microsemi announced that they had entered into an agreement to acquire PMC-Sierra.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsemi-wins-battle-to-buy-pmc-sierra-1448371039|title=Microsemi Wins Battle to Buy PMC-Sierra|first=Anne|last=Steele|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=24 November 2015|archive-date=18 November 2016|access-date=10 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118134922/http://www.wsj.com/articles/microsemi-wins-battle-to-buy-pmc-sierra-1448371039|url-status=live}}</ref>