Nordic Semiconductor announced today that the company has acquired Imagination Technologies’ Ensigma Wi-Fi development team and related Ensigma Wi-Fi IP technology assets. Through this single acquisition, the company extended its in-house wireless technology expertise to Wi-Fi.

According to her report, this acquisition includes a large number of employees of Imagination Technologies in the United Kingdom, Sweden, India and Taiwan. Among them, about 15% are low-power Bluetooth (Bluetooth LE) experts, they will further strengthen Nordic's existing Bluetooth LE team.

"For Nordic Semiconductor and its customers, especially in the smart home market, this is a dream come true," commented Svein-Egil Nielsen, CTO of Nordic Semiconductor. "As a global leader in short-range Bluetooth wireless technology and an emerging leader in long-range cellular wireless IoT, our customers have been asking us to fill this gap. And, although this will not happen overnight, because this is an IP acquisition , Rather than an accompanying acquisition of Wi-Fi equipment that is ready to be sold, but we will now be able to add Wi-Fi capabilities to the next generation of Nordic Semiconductor products."

"We at Nordic Semiconductor feel very lucky and excited. We have found the perfect Wi-Fi team with decades of most advanced Wi-Fi design experience and expertise, from which we can learn all the knowledge and technologies about Wi-Fi wireless. We believe in having every link in the product chain, and with the addition of the Imagination Wi-Fi team, we can now add the Wi-Fi hardware and software developed from the ground up by Nordic like other products to expand our wireless product range."

"What is exciting is the potential synergy between Nordic Semiconductor's low-power wireless legacy and Wi-Fi's latest low-power evolution, which can help us realize battery-powered IoT devices." Product Management at Nordic Semiconductor Director Kjetil Holstad added. "We plan to now become an active member of the Wi-Fi Alliance and work with them. At the same time, we will continue to cooperate with many other major standards organizations and institutions to take advantage of our decades of development and maximize the use of Wi-Fi. Power consumption wireless application potential. Ultra-low power wireless expertise.

"Although it is too early to comment on the details of the implications of this acquisition for Nordic Semiconductor products, I can say that we intend to establish a development platform and environment that unifies all of our wireless technologies. It will bring what customers expect All Nordic Semiconductor advantages. These advantages include lowering technology barriers to entry, eliminating all unnecessary design complexity, and enabling Nordic customers to easily add high-quality, low-power Wi-Fi functions and their functions based on Nordic Semiconductor products and applications ."

Nordic Semiconductor CEO Svenn-Tore Larsen added: “After acquiring the Wi-Fi team, we brought it into Nordic’s wireless IoT product portfolio. I’m very satisfied with that.” “We now plan to quickly communicate with Nordic’s new employees. Interactive. I want to assure everyone that Nordic Semiconductor is one of the best semiconductor companies in the world. It has been successfully operating in many global locations for a long time, and these new products and employees will be warmly welcomed and become our daily operations and personnel. An organic part of culture."

Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO of Imagination Technologies, said: “Although Wi-Fi was born in the consumer industry, it is now rapidly gaining attention in the industrial Internet of Things.”

"Based on Imagination's high level of attention and understanding of graphics, vision, and AI processing, we feel that our Wi-Fi IP department will flourish in the mid-to-long term in a company that focuses on wireless connectivity and will become a strategic focus. Growth. I am very happy to find such a good home for Nordic Semiconductor's technology and team: this is a perfect match."