Rambus acquires Velio's serial interface chips operation

LONDON —Rambus Inc. is buying, for a maximum of $13 million in cash, the serial interface chip business of Velio Communications Inc. The operation will be integrated into the Rambus RaSer product line.

As part of the agreement announced today (Friday 12th December 2003) Rambus will also get Velio's patents and licensing business related to high speed signaling devices.

Rambus says it has offered employment to a number of Velio personnel in its Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Milpitas, California locations.

The exact purchase price will depend on certain closing conditions, but will be no less that $13 million and the deal is expected to close before the end of this year. Once finalized, Velio will stop licensing of these technologies and will become a customer of Rambus.

Rambus said more details of the transaction would be provided during its scheduled earnings conference call in January 2004.

Kevin Donnelly, vice president of the Logic Interface Division at Rambus in Los Altos, California, said: "By adding Velio's high-speed signaling technologies to our serial interface offerings, Rambus is accelerating its ability to deliver advanced chip-to-chip interface solutions to our customers."

Mike Ofstedahl, chief executive officer at Velio, added in a statement: "This agreement with Rambus allows us to reduce our development costs, focus our resources on excellent product delivery, and continue to have access to leading-edge interface technology."