Qualcomm confirmed plans to acquire Atheros Communications for $45 per share in cash, which values the deal at $3.1 billion.
Atheros, which is based in San Jose, California, is a leading supplier of Wi-Fi silicon. Its product line includes wireless LAN client chips, network processors, Ethernet transceivers, Ethernet switching silicon, Powerline SoCs, and Bluetooth devices. The company has approximately 1,700 employess and reported Q3 2010 revenue of $247 million, up 4 percent compared to $238.2 million reported in the second quarter of 2010. Third quarter 2010 revenue increased 58 percent compared to $156.6 million reported in the third quarter of 2009. Atheros’ current president and CEO, Dr. Craig H. Barratt, is expected to join Qualcomm as president of Qualcomm Networking & Connectivity.
“It is Qualcomm’s strategy to continually integrate additional technologies into mobile devices to make them the primary way that people communicate, compute and access content. This acquisition is a natural extension of that strategy into other types of devices,” said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. “The combination of Qualcomm and Atheros is intended to accelerate this opportunity by utilizing best-in-class products for communications, computing and consumer electronics to broaden existing customer relationships and expand access to new partners and distribution channels.”http://www.qualcomm.com http://www.atheros.com
- In July 2010, Atheros acquired Opulan Technologies, a privately held Chinese fabless semiconductor company specializing in solutions for passive optical networking (PON) and broadband access aggregation (MUX). Atheros said the acquisition further expands its end-to-end (WAN-to-LAN) architecture consisting of Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Powerline solution
- In December 2009, Atheros Communications completed its acquisition of Intellon Corporation. With this acquisition, Atheros enhanced its networking technology portfolio to include Intellon’s powerline communications (PLC) solutions for home networking, networked entertainment, broadband-over-powerline (BPL) access, Ethernet-over- Coax (EoC) and smart grid management applications.
- Atheros Communications was founded in 1998 by Teresa H. Meng, a professor at Stanford University, and Dr. John Hennessy, then provost of Stanford. Richard A. Redelfs, formerly general manager of 3Com’s Wireless and Home Connectivity Division, joined Atheros as president and CEO in October 1999.
