NXP buys U.S. GPS semiconductor company GloNav
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Dutch chipmaker NXP will buy U.S.-based semiconductor developer GloNav, which specializes in global positioning system (GPS) chips, for up to $110 million in cash, it said in a statement on Friday.
NXP said the deal would further strengthen its mobile communications unit following the $285 million acquisition of the cellular communications business of Silicon Laboratories (SLAB.O) in February.
Privately held NXP, a former division of electronics group Philips (PHG.AS), said it would pay $85 million plus up to $25 million contingent on GloNav's reaching unspecified revenue and product-development milestones over the next two years.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, subject to regulatory approvals, said NXP, which is the world's ninth-biggest semiconductor maker.
NXP Chief Executive Frans van Houten said the acquisition would broaden NXP's portfolio of mobile technologies, which already includes FM radio, bluetooth, USB and near-field communication offerings.
The company said it estimated about 40 percent of mobile phones, or about 560 million units, would have GPS by 2010.
"It's only natural that we also want to use our mobile phones to navigate and to find local goods and services," van Houten said in the statement.
GloNav, which develops and patents semiconductor technology but does none of its own manufacturing, has about 50 staff in the United States, Britain, Ireland and Taiwan. They will join NXP's Mobile and Personal Business unit.
(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan, editing by Will Waterman)
