Texas Instruments (TI) agreed to acquire Chipcon, a leading company in the design of short-range, low-power wireless RF (radio frequency) transceiver devices, for $200 million.
Chipcon’s CC2430 is the world’s first true System-on-Chip ZigBee solution. The company also provides a ZigBee-compliant protocol stack, the Z-Stack, which was acquired when Chipcon purchased Figure 8 Wireless in January 2005. Chipcon also offers a proprietary RadioDesk technology platform to wireless input device manufacturers.
TI said combining Chipcon’s design experience in RF transceiver and System-on-Chip devices with TI’s advanced analog silicon technologies and broad systems expertise would enhance its ability to offer customers complete short-range wireless solutions for consumer, home and building automation applications. The acquisition also broadens TI’s offering of RF solutions and strengthens TI’s position in ZigBee.
Chipcon will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of TI and will continue to operate from its Oslo, Norway headquarters. Its other facilities include a software design center in San Diego, California; and sales offices in New Hampshire, Germany, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. The company employs about 120 people.
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