Nordic Semiconductor announced that it is expanding its in-house wireless technology expertise into Wi-Fi after acquiring the entire Ensigma Wi-Fi development team and associated Ensigma Wi-Fi IP tech assets from industry-leading graphics, vision and AI processing company, Imagination Technologies.
The acquisition includes a sizable number of Imagination Technologies employees located in the U.K, Sweden, India and Taiwan. Of these, around 15 percent are Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) specialists who will now further strengthen Nordic’s existing Bluetooth LE teams as well.
“This is a dream come true for Nordic Semiconductor and its customers, particularly in the smart home market,” commented Nordic CTO, Svein-Egil Nielsen. “As the global leader in short range Bluetooth wireless technology and the emerging leader in long-range cellular wireless IoT, there has long been a gap in between which our customers have been asking us to fill. And although it will not happen overnight as this an IP acquisition rather than one that comes with Wi-Fi devices ready to sell, we will now be able to add Wi-Fi functionality to future generations of Nordic products.”