SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Conexant Systems Inc. continues to divest its product lines. So what's left?
On Wednesday (May 7), CopperGate Communications Inc. (Tel Aviv, Israel) acquired the HomePlug AV business from Conexant (Newport Beach, Calif.)
The deal includes all relevant power line technology and silicon products, patents and licenses. Former Conexant employees will become part of the CopperGate team and will expand the company's R&D initiatives in Southern California. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
CopperGate is already a provider of HomePNA-compliant chipsets, the dominant coax and phone wire standard for IPTV installations. With the deal, CopperGate claims to be the first semiconductor company with home networking technologies supporting all three wire types: coax, phone and power lines.
''Adding power line technology to our HomePNA coax and phone line technology opens up many new markets globally and better prepares the company for the exciting new ITU home networking standard, G.hn,'' said Gabi Hilevitz, chief executive of CopperGate, in a statement.
G.hn is the working group name for the next generation global home networking standard being created within the ITU-T. With G.hn, coax, phone wires and power lines will all be supported by a single standard. Today, there are twenty-five active global members of G.hn including AT&T, Verizon, France Telecom, Intel and TI and the group recently began meeting monthly due to strong interest and increased contributions. The G.hn foundation specification is expected by the end of 2008.
It's been a rough period for Conexant. Amid a huge loss, Conexant last year cut 20 percent of its worldwide worforce and exited several chip markets.
Then, Daniel Artusi, president and chief executive of Conexant Systems, recently resigned from the chip maker after only about 10 months on the job.
Last month, NXP Semiconductors announced it is acquiring the Broadband Media Processing (BMP) business of Conexant for $110 million in cash with an additional payment of up to $35 million based on financial performances over the period from closing through 2009.
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