Acquisition note: "On February 9, 2009, SiRF signed a Merger Agreement with CSR..."
Wafer foundry: "Four outside foundries, IBM in the United States, Samsung in South Korea, STMicroelectronics in Italy and France and TSMC in Taiwan, currently manufacture substantially all of its products. Also, in 2007, with the acquisition of Centrality, SiRF began using Global Uni Chip, a design foundry, to provide turnkey solutions for its SoC products."
Patent foundation: "As of December 27, 2008, SiRF had 330 patents granted worldwide. Of this total, SiRF has 201 patents granted in the United States and 129 patents granted in foreign countries..."
Employees: "As of December 27, 2008, SiRF had 571 active, permanent employees, including 408 in research and development, 69 in sales and marketing, 48 in operations and 46 in general and administrative."
Recent IP legal action: "On April 2, 2007, Global Locate filed a complaint with the ITC regarding certain of SiRF Technology’s GPS devices as well as products SiRF Technology made for four of its customers, and the ITC subsequently instituted an investigation. Upon its acquisition of Global Locate, Broadcom was subsequently added as an additional complainant to the investigation. In August 2008, the ITC concluded that all six of the asserted Broadcom patents (1) had an existing domestic industry, (2) were valid, and (3) were infringed by certain of SiRF Technology’s products, and issued a recommendation that (1) those of SiRF Technology’s products that are accused products in the investigation, if found to infringe a patent at issue in the investigation, should be excluded from the United States, (2) a Limited Exclusion Order should be extended to products containing any of SiRF Technology’s products that may be found to infringe, and (3) Cease and Desist Orders should be issued prohibiting SiRF Technology from importing or selling in the United States those of SiRF Technology’s products which may be found to infringe any asserted patent. In January 2009, the ITC issued the ITC Final Determination in this matter and issued a Limited Exclusion Order prohibiting unlicensed entry of the infringing products into the United States by or on behalf of SiRF Technology or the Named Respondents, and Cease and Desist Orders against SiRF Technology and the domestic Named Respondents. The ITC’s remedial orders are subject to review by the President of the United States, acting through the United States Trade Representative’s Office, for sixty days. During that time, imports of affected products may continue subject to the posting of a bond. SiRF Technology has not obtained approval to date from U.S. Customs for the importation of its products into the United States containing new versions of its software and, if SiRF Technology or its customers are unable to do so, SiRF Technology’s business could be materially and adversely affected. SiRF has not sought pproval from U.S. Customs on any new versions of the GSCi-4100, GSCi-4200 and GSCi-5000 hardware products. Furthermore, no assurance can be given that Broadcom will not seek to bring an enforcement action against SiRF Technology alleging violations of the Limited Exclusion Order and Cease and Desist orders."
