In a move representing a trend toward specialization and away from diversification, Semtech Corp. has sold off its Snowbush intellectual property for integrated circuit chips to Rambus Inc. in a deal valued at $32.5 million. The Camarillo manufacturer could get additional money through 2022 from Sunnyvale-based Rambus when Rambus sells products made with Snowbush technology. Semtech Chief Executive Mohan Maheswaran said it decided to sell Snowbush because its technology doesn’t fit with its core products. “The planned divestiture of our Snowbush business is consistent with our practice to exit businesses that are no longer determined to be aligned with the company’s core, long-term strategy of delivering leading analog/mixed signal product platforms,” Maheswaran said in a prepared statement. The strategy behind the sale has become common in the semiconductor industry as companies concentrate on a specific niche as a way to differentiate from competitors. The Snowbush technology is used in making semiconductor chips for integrated circuits that incorporate all components of a computer into a single chip. The technology was developed at Semtech locations in California, Canada, Mexico and India. Matthew Robison, an equity analyst in the San Francisco office of Wunderlich, in Memphis, Tenn., said that the timing was right for Semtech to make the deal and a no-brainer for Rambus. “It is a product category that Rambus is involved with that Snowbush was in before Rambus was in it, so in a way, although it is a small business, there is a good heritage there for Rambus,” Robison said. In the days following the June 6 announcement of the sale, the price of Semtech shares increased by nearly 2 percent. Shares closed June 8 at $24.51. Snowbush’s divestiture is Semtech’s third in three years. In 2013, the company sold its video optical module product line for an undisclosed amount to Embrionix, a Laval, Quebec, manufacturer of transceivers that connect network devices to cables for broadcast video. And last year, Semtech sold its defense and microwave communications business to Jariet Technologies Inc. in exchange for a minority stake in the Redondo Beach company. Semtech inherited the defense and microwave business in 2009 when it acquired Sierra Monolithics, an Irvine-based developer of analog chips for communications systems. That deal was valued at $180 million.