Silicon Labs has signed an agreement with Redpine Signals to acquire the company's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth business, development centre in Hyderabad, India, and extensive patent portfolio, for $308m.
"The acquisition of Redpine Signals' ultra-low power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth products and extensive intellectual property portfolio will expand our leadership in wireless IoT technology," said Tyson Tuttle, CEO of Silicon Labs. "The addition of these products to our worldwide sales and distribution network will bring further momentum into the smart home, industrial IoT and commercial markets for customers looking to quickly reach the market with Wi-Fi enabled connected devices."
Wi-Fi 6, an important evolution of the standard
Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is an important evolution of the Wi-Fi standard to meet the low power, performance, security and interoperability requirements needed in environments with hundreds or thousands of connected IoT devices. The integration of Redpine Signals technology will accelerate Silicon Labs' roadmap for silicon, software and Wi-Fi 6 solutions. The acquisition also includes Bluetooth Classic IP for audio applications including wearables, voice assistants and smart speakers.
The acquisition of Redpine Signals also includes a large-scale design centre with approximately 200 employees in Hyderabad, India. The addition of Redpine's multi-disciplinary team will help Silicon Labs enhance its research and development activities in one of India's most talent-rich locations.
"My team is excited to join Silicon Labs to help build a smarter, more connected world," said Venkat Mattela, founder and CEO of Redpine Signals. "Backed by two decades of advanced research in OFDM and MIMO systems, Redpine has created highly differentiated, low-power multi-protocol SoCs. In the future, low-power Wi-Fi 6 will be a key technology for connectivity in IoT devices."