The Hindu Business Line : Wipro buys Austrian co for 47 m euros

Mr Ramesh Emani (left), President, Product Engineering Solutions, Wipro Technologies, and Mr Hans-Peter Metzler, CEO, NewLogic, at a press conference in Bangalore on Monday. - G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , Dec 19

WIPRO Technologies has acquired Austrian chip design firm NewLogic for euro 47 million (Rs 253.4 crore) in an all cash deal. The acquisition would strengthen Wipro's presence in Bluetooth and the wireless local area network (WLAN) space.

Announcing the deal, Mr Ramesh Emani, President, Product Engineering Services, Wipro, said the company would pay euro 21 million upfront and the rest over a three-year period on achieving targeted financial conditions. The transaction is likely to be closed during the next one month.

NewLogic, with estimated revenues of euro 14 million for 2005, brings to the Wipro fold a headcount of 120 engineers and a 20-strong customer base that includes biggies such as Philips, Infineon and Agere among others. NewLogic owns intellectual property (IP) cores for complex wireless applications such as Bluetooth and WLAN.

Mr Sudip Nandy, Chief Strategy Officer at Wipro, said the acquisition would help the company create a strong footprint in Europe and enhance the local delivery capability. NewLogic has three design centres in Europe at Lustenau (Austria), Sophia Antipolis (France) and Munich (Germany).

Mr Nandy told Business Line that Wipro was on the look-out for further buy-outs and would be announcing a string of acquisitions over the next few quarters to enhance its capabilities. However, he declined to spell out the details.

Mr Emani said Wipro would combine its global semiconductor IP portfolio, the analogue/mixed signal services and the European system-on-chip (SoC) design services with NewLogic and create a new business unit under Product Engineering Solutions (PES) Group.

Mr Emani also said that Mr Hans-Peter Metzier, CEO of NewLogic, would head the new business unit.

At present, the PES accounts for 32 per cent of Wipro Technologies' revenues. Wipro has some 1,200 people in the semiconductor and VLSI design space, which accounts for 3 per cent of Wipro Technologies' revenues. The addition of 120 people from NewLogic would enhance Wipro's semiconductor team to around 1,320.

NewLogic is ranked number one in wireless interfaces, WLAN and Bluetooth IP, Mr Metzler said, quoting Gartner report of April 2005. He said NewLogic has 10 per cent global marketshare each in WLAN and Bluetooth IP space.

With NewLogic's buyout, Wipro said it is aiming to become number one in communication standards based semiconductor IP category in the world in three years.

Wipro shares gained 3.25 per cent on Monday to close at Rs 455.80 on the BSE.

More Stories on : Mergers & Acquisitions | Hardware

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Tropical storm shows signs of weakening

Tamiflu, an export opportunity for domestic drug cos

Govt to divest 8 pc in Maruti — Stake sale limited to banks, FIs

Rain group to buy US calcined coke outfit for Rs 500 cr

Sensex up 109 points, closes at 9,394 — Retail investors told to be cautious

Infy to recruit from China campuses

FII inflows cross $10b in 2005

Wipro buys Austrian co for 47 m euros

Air Sahara wins cricket team sponsorship — To shell out Rs 313.80 cr for 4-year period