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TI set to buy Norwegian chip firm for $200 million

LONDON — Leading chip maker Texas Instruments Inc. has said it plans to acquire Chipcon, a Norwegian developer of Zigbee and other radio frequency transceiver devices, for approximately $200 million.

Chipcon Group ASA (Oslo, Norway) is the parent company and holding company that controls the activities of its wholly-owned subsidiaries Chipcon AS and Chipcon Inc. Chipcon has developed expertise in Zigbee wireless applications and acquired Figure 8 Wireless Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) in January 2005.

Chipcon's design experience in RF transceiver and system-on-chip devices would strengthen TI's position in ZigBee, a standard used for wireless monitoring and control applications, TI (Dallas, Texas) said. The transaction is expected to be complete in January 2006.

Under the terms of the deal Chipcon is set to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of TI and will continue to operate from its Oslo 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.

“TI's leadership as a supplier of high- performance analog and ultra-low-power microcontrollers opens new opportunities for Chipcon's low-power wireless product portfolio. In addition, Chipcon will benefit from TI's leading-edge manufacturing, process and packaging technology,” said Geir Forre, president and chief executive officer of Chipcon in a statement issued by TI.

Forre is set to lead TI's group integrating short-range wireless personnel and products from both Chipcon and TI.

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