Wipro acquires European System on Chip (SoC) design firm NewLogic

20 December 2005

Mumbai: Wipro Ltd will acquire the Austrian firm NewLogic in an all-cash deal. Under the terms of the agreement, the Wipro, the world's largest third party R&D services provider, will pay approximately € 47 million ($56million) to acquire a 100-per cent stake in the privately held NewLogic. The consideration includes cash payment on closure of the transaction as well as earn-outs on achieving targeted financial conditions over a three-year period. NewLogic's estimated 2005 revenues is €14 million.

NewLogic is a leading semiconductor design services company with intellectual property cores for complex wireless applications like Wireless LAN and Bluetooth. It has an industry leading portfolio of semiconductor IPs and components in the wireless applications space and demonstrated innovative capabilities in the analog and Radio Frequency (RF) design. These capabilities complement Wipro's own portfolio of IP cores and patents in wireless and wireline technologies, positioning the combined entity as the global leader.

With the acquisition, Wipro will gain 120 specialists, strengthening its ability to provide proven semiconductor IP cores and complete System-on-chip solutions with digital, analog mixed signal and RF design services. The acquisition also provides it access to 25 patent filings and over 20 customers in the product engineering domain. These customers include Agere, Infineon and Philips. Wipro, a leading solutions provider in semiconductor design services, has over 1,200 design engineers, and the NewLogic acquisition will further strengthens its position in the global design services market. Europe currently contributes to 9 per cent of Wipro'srevenues for R&D services in embedded products.

"In the product engineering space, ownership of IPs is a key asset for building services revenues. The NewLogic acquisition is a significant step in the our plans to be the leader in the Wireless IP and RF technology space. It will position Wipro as a complete SoC solution provider to our customers. The acquisition also helps us consolidate our position as leaders in this space and more particularly provides a solid base for addressing the large market in Continental Europe", said Ramesh Emani, President, Product Engineering Solutions, Wipro Technologies.

The Company will combine its global semiconductor IP portfolio, the analog/mixed signal services and the European SoC design services with NewLogic and create a new business unit under Product Engineering Solutions group.

Hans-Peter Metzler, CEO of NewLogic will head the new business unit and focus on addressing the growing customer needs for innovative SoC solutions.