The deal positions SiRF in two of the fastest growing areas for mobile devices. Already with a strong position in GPS chipsets, TrueSpan will give it the technology to support multiple mobile digital video broadcast standards at a time when TV on mobile devices is poised to break into mass markets.
TrueSpan, which was formed in 2004, uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technology, and claims its chipsets have 50% lower power consumption and a better performance than those of its competitors. The company has development teams in Long Beach, California and Bangalore, India.
Sanjai Kohli, founder and CTO of TrueSpan was one of the co-founders of SiRF and he returns to the San Jose, California company as CTO. He said mobile digital video broadcast technology and GPS-enabled location technology have both market and technology synergies.
Though pitted against chipmakers such as Analog Devices, Philips, Qualcomm, Infinion, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, and Trimble, Nasdaq-quoted SiRF has made great progress, and in its last quarter to December 31, net income was $9.6m on revenue that rose 98% year-on-year to $50.8m.
Its chips end up in products made by Motorola, MiTAC, TomTom, Garmin, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Palm, and Research In Motion.
