It has only been a few weeks since we officially welcomed LTC employees to Analog Devices and I am continually amazed by what we have accomplished together in such a short period of time. While there remains much work to do, I am heartened by the stories being shared by our colleagues around the world. Relationships are being built and there is a growing sense that we are indeed coming together as one company.

In late March it was great to see so many LTC employees at the General Technical Conference (GTC) that ADI hosts every year in Boston. In addition to sharing the scope of ADI’s technology with our new colleagues, it was a perfect opportunity to meet and get to know one another. Whether in technical sessions or impromptu conversations in the hallway, the power and potential of the combined company was on full display.

In addition, a number of teams have held networking events over the last few weeks designed to bring together employees from both legacy organizations to share information, network and learn from one another.

In Milpitas, legacy ADI and LTC employees participated in a LTC FAE training event. The employees had the opportunity to share technical information and learn about LTC products. The teams spoke about forward-looking signal chain application possibilities.

In Global Operations & Technology, the leadership team organized over 40 roundtables and 8 town hall meetings spanning many LTC locations. In addition, the Wilmington site has hosted leadership integration meetings with colleagues from all major front end locations.

Denis Doyle and Alex McCann hosted a joint 4 Fabs quarterly review meeting with video link between Limerick and Wilmington. Employees from Camas and Hillview travelled to Wilmington. The meeting highlighted common areas of interest and provided a host of opportunities to share and learn from each other. Teams are now working together to create a standard metrics reporting format for the coming quarters.

As we continue this journey I would encourage you to stay connected with your leadership and look for opportunities to meet and network with your new colleagues. Plans are in the works to arrange combined Quarterly meetings and networking socials in some of the common legacy locations where employees can gather to review the corporate slides, network and discuss experiences and successes of the combined company.

From an HR perspective, we continue work to harmonize policies and benefits. Most recently, we published a number of integrating comp policies and benefits on the integration microsite including the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, Corporate Logo, Trademark Guidelines, Social Media Guidelines and Insider Trading. Take the time to familiarize yourself with those documents. You will find them on the “Policies and Documents” page on the Integration Microsite on the Circuit.

Reflecting on the past few weeks and looking ahead to what is before us I am reminded of a young poet who wrote: “Unity is strength – when there is teamwork and collaboration wonderful things can happen.”

We have a lot to be proud of and a lot to look forward to – together.

Best regards,

Jean Philibert

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources

I know many of us are very excited to be on the other side of Day 1, and in Sales, we’re excited to begin leveraging our powerful increase in scale to accelerate our profitable growth. We can now sell more of what we have to more customers, but that’s just the beginning. We are mindful of the 1+1>2 vision that Vince has laid out, and I am delighted that in Sales we are already combining insights from each team to create disruptive value for our customers with immediate benefit to our goal of accelerating profitable growth.

Both of our companies have storied legacies of innovation, and we know that we only capture the greatest value when we leverage our full innovation capabilities – from architecture, to design, to system, all the way to solving the customer’s problem. Innovation is equally important in Sales as we combine our teams and processes to create a best-of-both sales model that accelerates our combined success. In my mind, there are four sales innovation initiatives that we need to pursue in 2017 to achieve our full potential.

Firstly, we have to accelerate profitable growth in the broad market. There is tremendous demand out there for our products and we need to find ways to more efficiently and effectively convert that demand into revenue. We’ve already begun to do that through ADI’s recent adoption of a streamlined distribution strategy similar to LTC’s that is focused on a single global distributor, Arrow, complemented by our existing regional distributors. This new strategy allows us to execute a much more focused and dedicated support model, which we believe will be the principal factor in accelerating sales. In addition, we are using Arrow in a more intelligent manner by leveraging a broader range of their higher value services including independent design houses, co-design partners, software and solutions labs, and electronic media that they own such as EDN and EE Times. These support services go far beyond mere fulfillment, which would traditionally form the core of a distribution strategy.

Secondly, we need to move up the value stack and for Sales that means more comprehensively solving our customers’ problems. The simple truth is that when we focus on the more difficult problems our customers are trying to solve and shift our thinking to the larger solutions that can solve those problems, we have an opportunity to sell much more product at greater revenue and improved margins. Our recent work on medical imaging demonstrates that when we extend beyond the component sale to the system sale, we can sell as much as 6x the product while still exceeding company model margins. It doesn’t have to be growth or profits – it can be and must be both!

Thirdly, we need to focus on picking the right platforms for our future. We have determined that three sales platforms – phased array radar, software-defined radio, and imaging (vision and optical) – cover ~30% of our opportunities. In each area the lead market typically accounts for 60-70% of the opportunity pipeline, therefore we need to prepare to win that space but also prepare earlier to leverage the investment into broader market penetration with specific go-to-market plans. By shifting our focus and applying greater resources to these areas, we have an opportunity to convert more of the pipeline, grow a broader customer base, and accelerate our growth at higher margins.

Finally, we need to focus on the 1+1>2 promise of our combination. We are already actively combining ADI and LTC’s technology and expertise and better solving customer problems than we could previously. For example, we have an opportunity to become a market leader in 77 GHz radar for automated and autonomous vehicles by combining LTC’s expertise in power management and ADI’s expertise in high performance sensing of the environment in a minimized form factor and at a resolution of object detection that was not previously possible. Additionally, the FAE team is capturing “1+1>2 combined solutions” and defining them in Combo Circuits from the Lab so that we can provide full LTspice and Hyperion content support. And this is just the beginning.

I am excited to have the LTC Sales team at ADI and to begin our work together. We are committed to a scaled-up Sales team that can delight more customers with the highest skilled analog and mixed signal support in the world. Combined, we go from approximately 500 resources separately to a 1,000-strong technical Sales force with the best technology available to solve our customers’ most challenging problems. I am confident that a more intense dedicated support model leveraging both our own resources and our channel partners is the right strategy.

This is an opportunity that comes around once in a generation; an opportunity to change the game in this industry. I’m confident that our combined company strategy, our technologies and expertise, and our larger Sales organization will redefine what success looks like in the analog market in 2017 and beyond. Together, we will accelerate our profitable growth and drive greater success for our employees, our customers, and our shareholders.

Regards,

Martin

Our journey together is off to a great start! The hard work and dedication of the ADI and LTC teams over the last few months resulted in a successful, relatively smooth Day One. While Day One is now behind us, it is important to recognize that our true work has only just begun. Henry Ford once said “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

To ensure our success, the integration team has been working hard to understand and navigate the behaviors and culture that will support our overall strategy of “building the base” and “moving up the stack.” What has become clear is that we share a common set of values – our organizations innovate with impact, partner with customers, and increasingly go beyond silicon. However, as is typical when any organizations come together, there are differences in how we act to support these values. We have spent time learning how our cultures have contributed to each company’s success, and we have partnered to determine how we want our combined organization to operate. As Vince and Bob have said, we have an exciting opportunity to create an organization that is truly greater than the sum of its parts.

Our combined future leadership team has agreed upon 5 key behaviors we need to exhibit as one organization to drive our strategy in a way that is consistent with our values. These behaviors are:

ADI has a legacy set of behaviors (Act with Courage, Build Great Teams, Create the Future, Drive for Excellence) that we aspire to demonstrate in our daily work in support of our strategy. The five behaviors listed above, albeit with slightly modified language, are contained within these ABCDs. The “Trust Each Other” behavior, in particular, is fundamental to ADI’s culture and it is one we are committed to developing in the combined organization. By working together over time, approaching collaboration with mutual respect, and building personal relationships we will build that trust.

Over the last few weeks, teams representing Product Development, Sales & FAEs, Manufacturing / Operations, and G&A have been working to create guidance around how to achieve our future state culture across each function. These teams include representatives from both LTC and ADI. You will be hearing more from these teams over the coming months.

Combining organizations and changing how we do things can often be challenging. But we will do it together, starting with our leadership team. We are committed to leading by example as we push ourselves to think and act differently, and we are asking you to do the same.

As you reflect on the five key behaviors, please consider your role in creating our new combined culture. Each and every one of us plays a role in ensuring our success. I look forward to our continued collaboration.

Best regards,

Peter

We are Don Paulus and Steve Pietkiewicz, GMs of Linear Technology’s Power Products business. We have built a successful, profitable and diversified portfolio of power products that lead the industry in performance. Our direct sales and field applications teams provide outstanding service to customers large and small, and we enjoy a strong reputation for expert applications help, short lead times, on-time delivery and high quality. We focus on the automotive, industrial and datacom markets where customers will often pay a premium for our highly differentiated, best-in-class power products. Not coincidentally, Linear’s profit margins also lead the industry.

When we first heard about Analog’s proposed acquisition of Linear, our initial response was, “Why?” We are proud of Linear Technology’s 35 year independence, our industry-leading products and reputation in analog semiconductors, especially the Power business that we have managed for superior profitability over many years. We are proud of our Development, Sales and Manufacturing organizations. We wrestled, fought and grappled with the merger news, trying to come to terms with losing our independence. Ultimately though, as we met and grew familiar with Analog’s management team, and studied the technologies and product portfolios, we came to realize that, just like Linear, Analog Devices is a great company. Today, we are very impressed with Analog’s people and its superior engineering prowess, expertise and the industry-leading products Analog has in many areas. We both now believe that bringing together our Power business with Analog’s signal chain business is a great idea, one with vast potential for symbiotic growth.

As we reflect on the potential of the combined strengths of our two great companies, we have come to appreciate the tremendous opportunity before us as we look to create the preeminent analog technology company. We look forward to collaborating with Rick Hess and his team to combine our power management expertise, products and market approach with Analog’s systems focus, key customer presence and strength in signal processing. As we team up with Analog’s internal power technology groups, we are confident that we can bring leading edge power management to system solutions for strategic customers and applications while continuing to excel with high performance standard products across our broad customer base. Striking the appropriate balance in supporting these two complementary goals will be key to our strategic focus on maximizing profitable growth.

This is an exciting time for both our employees and our customers as we combine forces with a “best of both” orientation as we look to achieve our goal of realizing an analog powerhouse greater than the sum of its parts. By working together, we have an unprecedented opportunity ahead of us to delight both our customers and our shareholders. We look forward to closing the transaction and turning our teams loose to get on with the business of building the world’s best analog technology company.

I’m Rick Hess, Executive Vice President at Analog Devices and responsible for the development of core signal processing technology and system-level solutions for ADI’s Industrial, Communications, Automotive, Healthcare, and Consumer Business Groups. Prior to working at ADI, I was the CEO of Hittite Microwave Corporation, which was acquired by ADI in 2014. I am excited to be part of ADI at this time as we plan to integrate two of the industry’s leading semiconductor companies.

As the integration planning process moves along, I’d like to highlight some of the activities occurring that will allow us to focus and allocate more time and funds to product solutions and faster decision making in the future combined ADI/LTC. With this goal, we plan to take the “best of both” from ADI and LTC in terms of simplifying workflows and gaining efficiencies. We are examining all functions to identify specific opportunities that could arise out of the combination of our two companies, initially prioritizing:

• Organizational design of the Business Unit organization, financial P&Ls, and operations metrics

• New product justification, execution, and integration with Global Operations

• Simplified financial budgeting of revenue and expense

• Worldwide facility integration

• Forward-looking pricing/costing strategy/rationalization

Simplifying our combined business processes and planning an optimal future state is a cross-functional and time-intensive effort. Leading the charge are Jim Mollica, Director of Finance for Manufacturing at ADI, and Alex McCann, Chief Operating Officer of Linear. The team is working with functional leads to identify the ideal state of each of the prioritized areas listed above, with input and sign-off provided from executives from both ADI and LTC, to ensure a well-planned and smooth integration process. We look forward to sharing updates on our integration process as they come into focus over the coming months.

We are still in the beginning stages of this work, though, and invite your feedback and questions as we go along. Please reach out to your managers or to employee.questions@analog.com at any time. As always, we appreciate your ongoing commitment to making the combination of ADI and LTC a success.

Welcome to the first of a series of monthly posts from ADI and LTC executives that will give you insight into the leadership teams of our two companies as well as the integration planning process. I am Dave Zinsner, the Chief Financial Officer at Analog Devices, a role I have occupied since I came to ADI in 2009. I am also the ADI/LTC Integration Executive responsible for working with both the executive committee and the integration team to make sure our decisions and activities align with our goals for this integration. In this role, I will guide the integration team’s work to create a best-in-class financial model, an industry-leading customer experience, and a product portfolio that helps solve our customers’ most complex problems.

As we begin planning for the combination of our two companies, we need to keep a few “rules of the road” in mind in terms of how we operate and communicate since, until the deal closes, we remain separate and independent companies. While we are all excited about the possibilities a combined company can bring to our employees and the marketplace, it is essential that we follow the established guidelines to ensure a smooth regulatory and review process. I encourage you to speak with your leaders if you have any questions. 

Turning our attention to the actual integration planning in process, I want to let you know about a few of our first integration planning events, which kicked off at the end of last week:

• Week of September 19: Executives from both ADI and LTC met to define our strategy toward integration planning through a workshop in San Jose, California.

• Week of September 26: Our joint integration kickoff brought together leaders from ADI and LTC who are overseeing the important work of combining our two organizations. These team members will become your points of contact for any questions related to the integration planning moving forward, and their names will be announced shortly.

• Next few months: We will be seeking regulatory approvals from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and other agencies worldwide – it will be a long but critical process as we work toward our planned combination.

We look forward to sharing updates from these events in future communications. You play an important part in making this integration a smooth transition, and we want you to be informed of our progress so you can more effectively engage in the planning process. You can expect communications through a variety of channels including these monthly leadership posts, emails from our respective CEOs and other members of the integration team, updated content on this site, and more. You can also reach out with questions any time to employee.questions@analog.com. Thanks for your ongoing commitment to making the combination of ADI and LTC a success.