ESS Technology Inc, the Fremont, California-based chip designer for desktop audio and digital video systems, with plans to expand its audio offerings, has agreed to acquire multimedia systems developer Platform Technologies Inc for 2.2m shares of ESS common stock. ESS wants Milpitas, California-based Platform Technolgies’ for its flagship Agogo-XP audio chip, which, with its integrated PCI-to-PCI bus bridge, provides backward compatibility to MS-DOS- based games. It also enables multimedia capability on a single add-in board, which ESS says will complement and add to its own existing products. Chairman and chief executive Fred Chan, says the firm expects to complete the acquisition by June 30 this year and roll out its first line of PCI-based products around the same time. Privately-held Platform Technologies is a manufacturing partner to chip foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd, itself a joint venture between the Chinese government, Philips Electronics NV and other private investors.
