How it started
History
AIXTRON was founded as a spin-out industry from RWTH Aachen University in 1983. The company was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange's now-defunct Neuer Markt, in November 1997. Since going public, the company has made several acquisitions, with the Scientific Equipment Division of the British company Thomas Swan & Co. and the Swedish chemical vapor deposition equipment maker Epigress AB both purchased in 1999.
The company completed a €118 million merger with American rival Genus, Inc. in March 2005 and bought British nanomaterial developer Nanoinstruments Ltd., a company spun out from the University of Cambridge, in 2007.
In December 2010, the company converted from a German Aktiengesellschaft to a Societas Europaea to reflect its European and international nature.
Blocked takeover
In October 2016, China's Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund LP made a bid to purchase Aixtron. The proposed acquisition was tainted by collusion; shortly before Fujian Grand Chip made its public takeover bid, Sanan Optoelectronics canceled a critical order from Aixtron on dubious grounds, sending its share price down for Fujian Grand Chips to make a less-expensive offer (both Sanan Optoelectronics and Fujian Grand Chips are controlled by the same state-owned semiconductor fund).
From Wikipedia’s article on Aixtron SE, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3