SiRF Aquires TrueSpan - Mobile Video Solutions | GPS Lodge.com


location based services

SiRF Technology today announced that it has acquired TrueSpan, a technology company with significant communications systems expertise, for consideration that includes cash and stock. Founded in September 2004, TrueSpan is developing a silicon and software platform that brings high quality digital audio and video experience to consumers in mobile environments. Its technology includes a sophisticated OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing – a technique for transmitting large amounts of digital data over a radio wave) engine, optimized to support multiple mobile digital video broadcast standards. TrueSpan has development teams in Long Beach, California and Bangalore, India.

The deal puts SiRF in two of the fastest growing areas for mobile devices - GPS and mobile video. SiRF already has a strong position in GPS chipsets, TrueSpan will give it the technology to support multiple mobile digital video broadcasts as TV on mobile sets is starting to penetrate the market. This comes on the heels of SiRF's recent aquisiiton in the mobile arena for BlueTooth solutions - Impulsoft (ReadMore)



“World class communications systems expertise is a critical capability for us, especially as we expand our offerings to include complex multifunction and location technology platform solutions,” said Dr. Michael Canning, president and chief executive officer of SiRF. “This experienced team, led by one of the co-founders of SiRF and including some of the original SiRF employees, will significantly strengthen both our GPS and communications systems expertise.”

Targeted at mobile phone, automotive and consumer markets, mobile digital audio and video broadcast is an emerging technology that is creating lots of excitement in the mobile community worldwide. Standards including DVB-T, DVB-H and DMB are being deployed in different regions of the world. By 2010, Informa Telecoms & Media believes that there will be 74 million DVB-H users, more than 50% of all mobile TV handset sales.

“Anticipating emerging market trends and developing differentiable solutions to address mainstream consumer needs has been key to our success in the market place. We believe that the mobile video broadcast market fits that criteria and is very synergistic with our target markets for GPS,” said Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice president of marketing for SiRF. “The sophisticated OFDM technology developed by TrueSpan not only addresses the needs of the emerging mobile digital television market, but also has the potential to become a major anchor for our overall multifunction strategy.”

As part of this acquisition, SiRF also announced that Sanjai Kohli, founder and chief technology officer of TrueSpan and one of the co-founders of SiRF, will become chief technology officer for SiRF. He will lead a team of technologists to develop innovative solutions for all SiRF products including both location and multifunction platforms.

“Mobile digital video broadcast technology and GPS-enabled location technology have both market and technology synergies and SiRF’s leadership in this market place opens up vast opportunities for our platform,” said Sanjai Kohli, founder and chief technology officer of TrueSpan. “I am glad to be back at SiRF and look forward to further strengthening our technology leadership position.”

TrueSpan has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SiRF. About 30 employees of TrueSpan, with the majority in Bangalore, India, have joined SiRF.

Read More in:

Related Articles:

Came straight to this page? Visit GPS Lodge.com for all the latest news