Fremont, California-based Cirrus Logic Inc is to acquire privately-held PicoPower Technology Inc, San Jose-based developer of system power management and advanced core logic for personal computers. It will pay 1.7m new shares for the company, putting an indicated value of $60m on the deal. PicoPower will continue to operate from its present base under that name; its technologies for system-level power management have been designed into personal computers from AT&T Corp, Gateway 2000 Inc, IBM Corp and NEC Corp, Cirrus says. It has been granted patents on its Power-On-Demand technology and has several other patents pending. With sales for the most recent quarter running at an annualised $20m, it has been profitable for the past five quarters. Cirrus Logic specialises in chips and software for graphics, multimedia, communications and storage.
