Sony has announced to be acquiring Israeli chipmaker Altair Semiconductor and the deal amount is said to be $212 million.
The company was founded by former Texas Instruments executives in 2005 and it develops modem chip technology to help smaller devices including power meters and security alarms to connect to the web.
The deal is said to have come in such a time when Sony is preparing to focus on chip technology for Internet of Things sensors. The giant aims combining the chipset of Altair with its sensing technologies.
Sony chief executive Kazuo Hirai said more things are expected to be equipped with cellular chip sets.
He has worked with the company to move it away from the consumer electronics.
Last year the company scooped up image sensor operations of Toshiba to bolster its position in the image sensor industry. It acquired the sensor manufacturing facility of Toshiba in Oita, South Japan, and also 11,000 engineering and design staff at the plant.
The new acquisition may close early next month.
Meanwhile, Altair co-founder Eran Eshed said, “We’re seeing Cat 1 being very much adopted by many, many carriers and we’ll see products activated with Cat 1 this year, this quarter. The networks are capable.”
He added further his company is competing with big giants like Intel and Qualcomm.
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