SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday it has purchased an Israeli developer of image sensors in its first acquisition in more than a decade.

 

Samsung bought Tel Aviv-based TransChip Israel Ltd. and turned it into one of its research and development centers, said Samsung spokeswoman Lee Eun-hee. The purchase was completed Oct. 1, she said.

 

The Korea Economic Daily newspaper reported Wednesday that Samsung paid $70 million for TransChip, which has been privately owned. Lee said she could not disclose the purchase price.

 

Lee said Samsung bought TransChip ''to enhance our competitiveness'' in CMOS image sensors, which are incorporated into semiconductors used in digital cameras and cameras in mobile phones. Samsung manufactures the sensors.

 

Lee said that TransChip will be renamed Samsung Semiconductor Israel R&D Center Ltd.

 

Samsung now has 17 research and development centers in countries including South Korea, India, China, Russia, the United States and Japan, she said.

 

It was Samsung's first acquisition since it paid $20 million for the hardware systems business of U.S. entertainment software publisher 3DO Co. in April 1997, Lee said.

 

Samsung — which is based in Suwon, South Korea — is the world's largest manufacturer of computer memory chips. It also makes an array of components and consumer electronics, including liquid crystal displays, mobile phones, televisions, personal and laptop computers and digital music players.

 

Samsung's announcement of the acquisition comes after South Korean rival Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said earlier in October that it plans to re-enter non-memory chip production after a three-year hiatus to manufacture CMOS image sensors.