Entegris follows up Digital buy with MPD

Entegris, a Massachusetts-based supplier of speciality chemicals and materials for the microelectronics industry, has acquired MPD Chemicals for about $165 million in cash. MPD will become part of the company’s Specialty Chemicals & Engineered Materials segment.

This came less than three months after Entegris had acquired Canadian-based Digital Specialty Chemicals (DSC), which makes organometallic precursors used to deposit thin films during semiconductor fabrication and has wider expertise in organometallic and organophosphorus chemistry for uses in the life sciences. DSC was expected to add about $20 million/year to sales.

MPD, similarly to DSC, supplies advanced materials to the specialty chemical, technology and life sciences industries. Entegris said that these buys will expand its capabilities in the development and production of new organosilane and organometallic materials, particularly in semiconductor applications as digitalisation puts ever greater demands on the deposition materials used at all stages of manufacture.

This has been described as something of a 'consolation prize' for Entegris. Earlier this year, the firm had signed a deal to merge with Versum, another big player in electronic chemicals, but eventually lost out when Merck KGaA swooped in with a higher bid that Versum shareholders accepted after a battle of words.