Texas Instruments Inc has taken a 5% equity stake and signed a product development agreement with Edinburgh-based interface signal processing specialist Wolfson Microelectronics Ltd, to expand both companies data conversion product ranges. Wolfson specializes in interface signal processing systems for the communications and multimedia markets. The deal is part of Texas Instruments commitment to extending its mixed-signal technological innovation and extending its position in DSP Digital Signal Processing systems. Under the agreement, both Texas and Wolfson will contribute marketing and engineering resources. They will both create the product definitions, Wolfson will do the product design and Texas Instruments the manufacturing. Both companies will then market and sell the final products. Wolfson is a privately-held company which plans to float on Nasdaq next year. It had forecast 1998 revenue of ú6m, prior to signing the deal with Texas. The company already sells its products worldwide, through a number of agents and distributors in the US and is particularly strong in Asia, it said. However, the Texas deal will obviously put a huge amount of marketing clout behind the 55-person company. The first products from the joint development are expected in the first quarter of next year. Financial details of Texas Instruments’ investment were not disclosed.
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