Qorvo Inc of Greensboro, NC and Hillsboro, OR, USA (which provides core technologies and RF solutions for mobile, infrastructure and defense applications) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held fabless semiconductor/system firm GreenPeak Technologies of Utrecht, The Netherlands, which specializes in ultra-low-power, short-range RF communication technology. Qorvo says that the acquisition will allow it to expand into highly integrated RF solutions and systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) for the connected home and the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT).
"The acquisition of GreenPeak Technologies will complement Qorvo's market-leading high-power RF portfolio with innovative ultra-low-power, short-range wireless personal area network (WPAN) SoCs, ZigBee and Bluetooth solutions," believes James Klein, president of Qorvo's Infrastructure and Defense Products (IDP) group. "GreenPeak brings a world-class technical team and solutions to Qorvo, allowing us to increase our presence in the rapidly expanding IoT market," he adds.
"Qorvo will be a great environment for the GreenPeak team to grow as part of a much larger company serving many more global customers," believes GreenPeak's founder & CEO Cees Links. The firm will become part of Qorvo's IDP group and will be headed by Links.
Market research firm Gartner forecasts that Smart Home networking and IoT markets addressed by 802.15.4, ZigBee and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology will grow to $2.3bn by 2020, and related smart markets such as retail, agriculture, automotive, lifestyle and commercial lighting will grow to $4.9bn by 2020. Beyond smart home networking, demand is growing to connect a variety of devices including HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), energy, security, home health, and remote controls utilizing ultra-low-power wireless data communication SoCs.
GreenPeak adds to Qorvo a legacy of engineering and system-level expertise in wireless RF technology, and offers a broad range of proprietary antenna diversity and multiple receiver architecture technologies. GreenPeak's solutions are claimed to offer superior range, robustness and best-in-class WiFi interference rejection with no latency in production-ready reference designs that can allow quick time to market for integration into smart home and IoT applications. In 2015, the firm shipped its 100 millionth ZigBee chip to the smart home market.
The acquisition is expected to close in this quarter, subject to customary closing conditions.
