Tucson-based Apex Microtechnology Corp., will be acquired for $42 million in cash by Austin, Texas-based Cirrus Logic Inc., a circuit designer.
Apex, 5980 N. Shannon Road, makes high-power analog amplifier products, which will keep the Apex brand.
The privately held Apex employs about 90 people and generated revenue of about $20 million last year.
Apex's president and CEO, Debbie Drysdale, who has led the company since 2002, will leave the company with the close of the acquisition by the end of August, a Cirrus spokesman said.
The company's operations are expected to remain in Tucson.
Cirrus Logic's president and CEO, Jason Rhode, said the acquisition of Apex gives Cirrus the expertise to expand into high-power industrial markets.
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"Combining Cirrus Logic's signal processing and IC (integrated circuit) design skills with Apex's expertise in power drivers and amplifiers will allow us to introduce precision power products with higher levels of integration and functionality," Rhodes said in a prepared statement.
Apex designs and makes integrated circuits, modules and hybrid products for industrial and aerospace applications that require high-power precision analog control, such as power amplifiers for driving motors, piezo electrics and programmable power supplies.
The company offers about 80 products supporting 1,200 customers worldwide, including leaders in industrial and aerospace markets. Apex is the largest privately held export company in the Tucson area, the company says.
Apex was founded in Tucson in 1980 by William W. Olschewski and another former engineer for Burr-Brown Corp., now part of Texas Instruments.
In 2000, then-CEO and majority shareholder Olschewski decided to retire and Scottsdale-based Alerion Capital Group acquired a majority stake in the company in a $22 million stock purchase.