u-blox Acquires Cognovo for $16.5m; Gains 4G Chipset Design Capability

Swiss GPS and wireless chipset vendor u-blox announced today the acquisition of UK-based Cognovo for $16.5 million. Cogonovo is a spin-off from ARM that will enable u-blox to address new markets for high-speed LTE modems (4G). The company specializing in "Software Defined Modem" (SDM) chip development technology and has a staff of 30 people.

The combination of technologies from Cognovo and the recently acquired 4M Wireless will result in a new wireless modem platform for u-blox.

Cognovo has already demonstrated their SDM baseband chip running high-speed 4G cellular functionality working with the LTE protocol stack from 4M Wireless at Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

"This is a very exciting acquisition for u-blox as it positions us as an agile and cost-effective supplier of high-speed wireless modem products based on our own chip IP. This allows us to meet market demand for connected systems that require positioning, connectivity and application specific functionality on a single integrated circuit," said u-blox CEO Thomas Seiler.

"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."

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