The two companies expect to notably increase the speed of innovation in 2.5G, 3G, multimedia, and future wireless technologies.
STMicroelectronics and NXP have set a milestone to the consolidation in the wireless industry by merging two activities generating an estimated $3 billion in revenue in 2007. Rich of thousands of communication and multimedia patents, the new joint-venture will address the technologies for UMTS, for the emerging 3G Chinese standard, as well as other cellular, multimedia and connectivity capabilities, including WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM Radio, USB, and UWB. The joint-venture will integrate the Silicon Laboratories’ wireless and GloNav’s GPS operations recently acquired by NXP. With approximately 9,000 employees worldwide, coming equally from ST and NXP, the new company is fabless and relies on its parent companies and foundries for wafer fabrication.
In a joint press release, NXP and STMicroelectronics refer to a survey from iSuppli which forecasts the global handset market to grow at about an 8% CAGR through 2011, from 1.15 billion units in 2007. According to the market research firm, the handset semiconductor market represented 14% of the global semiconductor total available market in 2007, making up the second largest segment of the industry.
