Atheros Communications Acquires u-Nav Microelectronics

(Business News & Technology News, 17 Dec 2007)

Atheros Communications Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the assets and certain liabilities of u-Nav Microelectronics, a privately held fabless semiconductor company specializing in global positioning system (GPS) chipsets and software that enable mobile location-based products and services. The acquisition of u-Nav immediately expands Atheros' growing product portfolio in mobile wireless communications, which also includes mobile wireless LAN (WLAN), Bluetooth and PHS.

The addition of u-Nav's shipping GPS products and technologies to Atheros' Radio-on-Chip for Mobile (ROCm) portfolio enables the company to deliver high-performance, cost-efficient combinations of mobile solutions. By aggregating these complimentary wireless technologies into complete, single-source solutions, Atheros will deliver greater value to its existing customer base, expand into new market segments and offer a greater share of the total bill of materials for mobile devices. Additionally, Atheros will provide optimized wireless coexistence, supporting multiple radios in a single device for local area networking, personal area networking and mobile location-based services.

With the acquisition of u-Nav, Atheros gains 54 employees located at u-Nav's Irvine, California, headquarters and its European engineering facility in Tampere, Finland. Upon closing the transaction, Atheros will also take assignment of the patent cross-license agreement already in place between u-Nav and SiRF Technology Inc.

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