With silicon software engineering skills being in such short supply these days, Cambridge, UK RISC core designer ARM has decided to short-circuit the arduous recruitment process, and bought an off the shelf development team in the shape of former local contractor, Micrologic Solutions Ltd. ARM has paid 1.1m pounds ($1.8m) for Micrologic, a private company that generated revenue of 1.4m ($2.3m) in year ended April 30. The final price may be marginally higher if Micrologic realizes additional performance related bonuses.
ARM financial controller Angela Au said Micrologic’s established team of 25 software engineers represents a significant boost to the company’s applications software design capabilities, particularly in all the trendy areas, such as telecoms, MP3, soft modems and Blue Tooth. The team is expected to fold quite naturally into ARM’s existing software group, and will likely be relocated once ARM’s new premises in Cambridge are opened early next year.
It’s always difficult to recruit good people, said Au, but in Micrologic’s case, after several years working with the company on a contract basis, we know they’re good people, they’re a good team, and we think it will be a good cultural fit, she said.
