Photon Control Acquired by MKS Instruments For $387 Million

Richmond’s Photon Control has been acquired by MKS Instruments for approximately $387 million.

Publicly-traded on the TSX under the symbol PHO, Photon Control designs, manufactures and distributes a wide range of optical sensors and systems that are used in the semiconductor and other high-technology industries to measure temperature and position.

Photon Control is headquartered in an ISO 9001:2015 manufacturing facility in Richmond and has manufacturing, sales and engineering offices in California.

Photon Control shareholders will receive CAD $3.60 per share in an all-cash transaction with an estimated enterprise value of CAD $343 million.

“We believe the Photon Control acquisition will help us deliver on one of our long-term strategic objectives, which is to broaden our portfolio of key technologies to better serve our customers,” said MKS President and CEO John T.C. Lee.

“We anticipate the acquisition will further advance the MKS strategy to enhance our Surround the Chamber^® offering by adding optical sensors for temperature control for critical etch and deposition applications in semiconductor wafer fabrication. In addition, Photon Control is a strong strategic fit with similar culture and vision to MKS.”

MKS Instruments is a global provider of instruments, systems, subsystems and process control solutions that measure, monitor, deliver, analyze, power and control critical parameters of advanced manufacturing processes to improve process performance and productivity.