Apple is to take over a significant silicon chip design team in Swindon following a deal with Dialog Semiconductor.

The iPhone maker will take over 300 engineers across Europe as part of a $600m deal with Dialog, which includes a building and engineers at its founding Swindon site.

The deal covers Dialog’s power management technology that is used in chips in iPhones and iPads. Dialog will receive $300m for licensing its technology to Apple and will transfer designs across, and Apple will pre-pay $300m for power management chips over the next three years.

“Dialog has deep expertise in chip development, and we are thrilled to have this talented group of engineers who’ve long supported our products now working directly for Apple,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies.

Apple will also take over sites at Livorno, Italy and Nabern and Neuaubing in Germany.

“This transaction reaffirms our long-standing relationship with Apple, and demonstrates the value of the strong business and technologies we have built at Dialog,” said Jalal Bagherli, CEO of Dialog. “Going forward, we will have a clear strategic focus, building on our custom and configurable mixed-signal IC expertise and world-class power-efficient design. Our execution track record, deep customer relationships, and talented employees give us great confidence in our future growth prospects. We believe that this transaction is in the best interests of our employees and shareholders who will benefit from a business with enhanced focus, strong growth prospects and additional financial flexibility to invest in strategic growth initiatives.

Silicon Swindon