Thursday, December 29, 2011

Invensas Purchases 73 MoSys Patents

SANTA CLARA, Calif. & SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MoSys, Inc. (Nasdaq: MOSY) and Invensas Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tessera Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSRA), announced today that they entered into a patent purchase agreement. Under the agreement, Invensas purchased 43 United States and 30 foreign memory technology patents from MoSys for $35 million in cash. MoSys retained a royalty-free license to the patents to cover its Bandwidth Engine® product line and technology partners, along with related rights to offer sublicenses to current and future partners.

“The MoSys patents are very relevant to industry-standard DRAM products that have been shipping from the fabs of our potential licensees. The MoSys transaction represents an important milestone in our ongoing acquisition program,” said Simon McElrea, president, Invensas Corporation.

“We are pleased with this transaction as it provides MoSys and its current licensees with continued access to the patents and allows us to strengthen our balance sheet,” stated Len Perham, president and chief executive officer, MoSys. “The combination of the retained license and the non-dilutive source of funding made this transaction very appealing.”

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Linear Technology acquires Dust Networks

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Linear Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: LLTC), a leader in high performance analog integrated circuits, today announced the acquisition of Dust Networks, Inc., a leading provider of low power wireless sensor network (WSN) technology. The acquisition of Dust Networks, based in Hayward, CA, will enable Linear to offer a complete high performance wireless sensor networking solution. Dust Networks’ low power radio and software technology complements Linear’s strengths in industrial instrumentation, power management and energy harvesting technology.

Dust Networks’ proven, low power wireless sensor network technology extends Linear’s product portfolio into key growth areas in industrial process control, data acquisition and energy harvesting. Dust Networks’ ultralow power wireless systems complements Linear’s analog and digital sensor interface ICs, and energy harvesting power management products in applications where measurement of physical parameters has traditionally been impractical or impossible.

Erik Soule, Vice President of Signal Conditioning and High Frequency products for Linear Technology, stated, “Dust Networks offers the lowest power radio technology and most complete networking software for building industrial-grade wireless sensor networks. Combined with Linear’s precision low-power sensor interface products and battery-free energy harvesting technology, we can now offer the industry’s highest performance remote monitoring solutions.”

With the growing importance of machine-to-machine communications to enable remote data acquisition, low power wireless sensing is an emerging solution for many end-markets, including industrial process control, building automation and data center energy management.

Joy Weiss, President of Dust Networks, stated, “Dust Networks and Linear are an excellent fit. We already have very complementary products and customers, and with Linear’s global sales reach we can be at the forefront, enabling sensor networks to go wireless on an even broader scale.”

“Smart Dust” was first conceived by Dr. Kris Pister, founder and chief technologist of Dust Networks, as a simple way to deploy intelligent wireless sensors. Dust Networks pioneered SmartMesh® networks that comprise a self-forming mesh of nodes, or “motes,” which collect and relay data, and a network manager that monitors and manages network performance and sends data to the host application. This technology is now the basis for a number of seminal networking standards. The hallmark of Dust Networks’ technology is that it combines low power, standards-based radio technology, time diversity, frequency diversity, and physical diversity—to assure reliability, scalability, wire-free power source flexibility, and ease-of-use. All motes in a SmartMesh network—even the routing nodes—are designed to run on batteries for years, allowing the ultimate flexibility in placing sensors exactly where they need to go with low cost “peel and stick” installations.

Dust Networks’ customers range from the world’s largest industrial process automation and control providers such as GE and Emerson, to innovative, green companies such as Vigilent and Streetline Networks. Dust Networks’ technology can be found in a variety of monitoring and control solutions, including data center energy management, renewable energy, remote monitoring, and transportation.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Although there will be some transaction related costs, Dust’s ongoing results are not expected to be material in the short term to Linear’s financial statements.

About Dust Networks

Founded in 2002, Dust Networks is a pioneer in the field of wireless sensor networking, and is defining the way to connect smart devices. Using standards-based network technology, Dust Networks provides reliable, resilient and scalable products with advanced network management and comprehensive security features. Dust’s broad portfolio includes SmartMesh®IP, SmartMesh Industrial/WirelessHART™ and ZigBee®. Dust Networks provides complete wireless systems solutions, including IEEE 802.15.4 mote modules, mote-on-chips and network and security management software and hardware. For more information, visit www.dustnetworks.com

About Linear Technology

Linear Technology Corporation, a member of the S&P 500, has been designing, manufacturing and marketing a broad line of high performance analog integrated circuits for major companies worldwide for three decades. The Company’s products provide an essential bridge between our analog world and the digital electronics in communications, networking, industrial, automotive, computer, medical, instrumentation, consumer, and military and aerospace systems. Linear Technology produces power management, data conversion, signal conditioning, RF and interface ICs, and µModule® subsystems. For more information, visit www.linear.com

LT, LTC, LTM, µModule and are registered trademarks of Linear Technology Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Lattice Semiconductor to Acquire SiliconBlue


HILLSBORO, OR--(Marketwire - Dec 9, 2011) - Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQLSCC) today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SiliconBlue Technologies, a pioneer and leader in Custom Mobile Device™ solutions for the consumer handheld market. Utilizing a single chip, ultra-low power Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) fabric, SiliconBlue's mobileFPGA™ devices enable mobile designers to quickly add features to their mobile platform in areas such as connectivity, memory / storage, sensor management, and video / imaging. SiliconBlue's mobile FPGA devices have already shipped in the millions of units to top tier consumer OEM's.
Under terms of the agreement, Lattice Semiconductor will pay approximately $62 million in cash for SiliconBlue Technologies. The acquisition is subject to standard closing conditions, with a targeted close in the fourth quarter of 2011. Lattice Semiconductor ended the third quarter of 2011 with a cash, cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities balance of $267.2 million.
Darin G. Billerbeck, Lattice Semiconductor's President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "The acquisition of SiliconBlue is aligned with our Strategic Long Range Plan and will help accelerate our growth strategy in the Mobile Consumer market. Silicon Blue will further strengthen our product roadmap by adding a scalable, low cost, low power nonvolatile memory FPGA, along with key personnel and blue chip customers. Kapil Shankar, SiliconBlue's Chief Executive Officer, will join Lattice Semiconductor as Corporate Vice President of the Mobility Business Unit and will be responsible for the Company's mobility product lines."
The mobile consumer market for PLD's includes digital cameras, smartphones, eReaders, tablets, notebooks and netbooks. Key market growth trends include the drive for longer battery life, more natural interfaces, increased functionality, lower cost and reduced weight.
Mr. Shankar commented, "We are excited to be joining the Lattice Semiconductor family. Lattice gives us the global scale, proven market credibility and financial backing to take SiliconBlue to the next phase of its growth. We think our existing customers will immediately benefit from our new global reach and support. We also expect Lattice's added resources and financial strength will give potential new customers confidence in designing in our mobileFPGA solutions as we work to more fully realize the potential of our pioneering technology."
About SiliconBlue:Founded in 2006, privately held SiliconBlue Technologies is the leader in Custom Mobile Device (CMD) solutions, with over 250 active end customers and more than 40 patents. The company offers a total solution for handset applications, including IP, design services and a new class of ultra-low power, single-chip, CMOS SRAM mobileFPGA devices with patented non-volatile configuration memory (NVCM). The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with offices in China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. SiliconBlue is a privately held company and includes the following investors; BlueRunVentures, Crosslink Capital, NEA, Apex Venture Partners, TSMC and Atlantic Bridge. For more information, please visit our website atwww.siliconbluetech.com.
About Lattice Semiconductor: Lattice is the source for innovative FPGAPLD, programmable Power Management solutions. For more information, visit www.latticesemi.com. Follow Lattice via FacebookRSS and Twitter.