S.Korea Samsung Elec buys Israeli chip design firm

SEOUL, Oct 31 (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS), the world's top memory chip maker, said on Wednesday it bought an Israeli chip design firm with an eye to expanding its market share in the non-memory chip market.

"We are aiming to enhance our presence in the image sensor area," a Samsung spokeswoman told Reuters.

This is Samsung's first foreign acquisition in the semiconductor area since 1997, the company said.

Samsung on Tuesday said in a filing to the Korea Exchange it was establishing a research and development centre in Israel. The company confirmed on Wednesday it had bought the Israeli chip designer in order to turn it into an R&D centre, but declined to publish the value of the transaction.

The Israeli company, which was called TransChip before Samsung's acquisition, specialises in designing, developing and marketing image sensors, called CMOS sensors, used in digital cameras.

Samsung is currently ranked No. 3 in the world's complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) image sensor market, trailing sector leader Micron (MU.N).