Telecom Lead Europe: u-blox, the Swiss positioning
and wireless chip and Module Company has acquired UK-based Cognovo, a provider
of Software Defined Modem (SDM) chip development technology.

 

u-blox has acquired 100 percent shares of Cognovo Ltd. at
a price of $16.5 million along with key intellectual property and software.

 

The acquisition will integrate the Cognovo business and
30 employees into u-blox’ organization.

 

With this takeover, u-blox will now leverage 4G chip
technology from Cognovo. Also, u-blox will now be able to extend its chip
design capabilities to create differentiated products for strategic markets
that require 4G communications combined with global positioning.

 

“The acquisition allows us to meet market demand for
connected systems that require positioning, connectivity and application
specific functionality on a single integrated circuit. This new foundation
broadens our serviceable market, and will increase our margins in the
automotive, consumer and industrial sectors. Our first 4G product is planned
for 2013,” said Thomas Seiler, u-blox CEO.

 

The amalgamation of Cognovo technologies and the recently
acquired 4M Wireless will result in a new wireless modem platform based on IP
owned by u-blox.

 

“With over 300 man-years of R&D invested in our
SDM technology, this acquisition brings together the industry’s most advanced
software modem development platform with some of the best IC design and GNSS
engineers in the world. This will be an unbeatable team,” said Gordon Aspin,
Cognovo CEO.

 

u-blox said that the acquisition is aimed at establishing
a leading position in 4G wireless modems.

 

The market for 4G modems used for
machine-to-machine (M2M) applications is predicted to grow rapidly, surpassing
20 million units by 2016.

 

Rohde & Schwarz and u-blox validate GLONASS
compatibility

Last year, u-blox and Rohde & Schwarz
(R&S), a global supplier of test and measurement equipment, completed a
simulation of the Russian GLONASS satellite navigation system.

 

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