Swiss Chipmaker U-blox Confirms Talks With Advent on Takeover

This content was published on August 15, 2025 - 15:33

2 minutes

(Bloomberg) — Swiss positioning chips maker U-blox Holding AG said it’s currently in negotiations with Advent over a potential transaction involving a possible takeover.

Whether a deal will materialize remains open at this stage, according to a statement on Friday that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. Advent is working on an offer to acquire U-blox in a deal that could be valued at more than 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.2 billion), people familiar with the matter have said.

Shares of U-blox surged as much as 20% in their biggest intraday gain since August 2022 after the Bloomberg News report. The stock is up roughly 77% this year, giving the company a market value of over $1.2 billion.

Private equity firms have been dialing up deals in the European public markets, where valuations are seen as not reflecting business’ fundamentals. A consortium of Nordic Capital and Permira recently made a takeover bid for Copenhagen-listed vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic A/S.

For Advent, a deal for U-blox would mark another public takeover in Europe following its offers for London-traded Spectris Plc and Tinexta SpA in Italy. While Advent earlier this month walked away from a bidding war with KKR & Co. on Spectris, it signed a binding agreement, together with Nextalia, to buy a stake in Tinexta with plans to delist the company.

U-blox makes chips and modules for localization technologies used in cars, consumer electronics, autonomous machines and drones among others. It recently completed the sale of its cellular business that was loss-making in 2024. Stephan Zizala, U-blox chief executive officer, has said the firm’s future is in “automated driving and mobile robotics.”

(Updates throughout with confirmation.)