Featured Story
A Nokia sale of mobile, especially to the US, would be nuts
Nokia's hiring of Intel's Justin Hotard to be its new CEO has set tongues wagging again about a mobile exit, but it would look counterintuitive and inadvisable.
SiRF Technology acquires Motorola's GPS chip set product lines and becomes a preferred GPS technology supplier
June 2, 2005
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRF), a leading provider of GPS-enabled location technology, today announced that it has acquired Motorola, Inc.'s GPS chip set product lines. As part of the agreement, SiRF also has become a preferred GPS technology supplier to Motorola.
SiRF will integrate into its product portfolio Motorola's existing GPS chip set products, including the MG2000 used in telematics applications and the MG4x00 (Instant GPS) used in cellular handsets and for public safety two-way radio designers across a range of mobile platforms. To further enhance its GPS offering, SiRF also has acquired the rights to some of the GPS chip set products that Motorola currently has under development. SiRF will continue to collaborate with Motorola to source and integrate robust and competitive GPS solutions into future Motorola products.
Under the terms of the agreement, SiRF has acquired Motorola's GPS chip set product lines and entered into a supply agreement with Motorola for a total payment of $20.0 million in cash. The Board of Directors of SiRF has approved the acquisition.
SiRF is focused on providing GPS enabled location technology for high-volume mobile consumer devices and commercial applications, including automobile navigation and Telematics systems, mobile phones, mobile consumer devices and PDAs. SiRF currently has about 240 employees and is headquartered in San Jose, California, with major operations worldwide. Motorola's GPS business has about 40 employees, based in Tempe, Arizona and Basingstoke, UK.
"The opportunity to acquire a team with a critical mass of GPS expertise, product lines that complement our existing products, and a very strong customer base were decisive factors in making this transaction," said Dr. Michael Canning, president and chief executive officer of SiRF. "We believe that combining the strengths of our two teams will enable us to provide broader product offerings and better overall support infrastructure to serve Motorola and our other customers worldwide."
"SiRF is well recognized in the industry as a leading global supplier of GPS solutions. Motorola has already successfully collaborated with SiRF on a variety of programs," said Mr. Kieran O'Sullivan, vice president of Motorola's Automotive Telematics, Interiors and Aftermarkets Business. "This is a win-win for Motorola since our customers will benefit by receiving more focused resources from a fantastic partner, and it allows us to focus on our core automotive business by leveraging strategic relationships like the one we have with SiRF."
Motorola's GPS chip sets are integrated in a variety of products and platforms. These include the Motorola Telematics systems for automobile manufacturers, select Motorola cellular phones for mobile operators worldwide, and Motorola's GPS-enabled two-way radio systems for public safety organizations.
"Motorola is a leader in the integration of GPS in a range of wirelessly connected systems, especially in two of our key target platforms - automotive and wireless handsets - and we are pleased for the opportunity to become a preferred supplier of GPS technology to them," said Kanwar Chadha, founder of SiRF. "Strategic collaboration with Motorola in the GPS enabled location technology field will enable our two companies to drive a shared vision of accelerating the development and adoption of location-enabled products for consumer and commercial mass markets."
SiRF expects the transaction to result in a revenue upside of about ten percent for the second half of 2005. EPS impact is expected to be non dilutive for the rest of the year 2005 and be accretive for the calendar year 2006.
SiRF Technology Inc.
Motorola Inc.
You May Also Like