Qualcomm Inc. announced it has acquired Berkana Wireless Inc., a wireless chip designer, for $56 million in cash. Silicon Valley-based Berkana provides metal oxide semiconductor radio frequency integrated circuits, or RF CMOS chips, to the wireless industry, and Qualcomm said it expects Berkana’s technology to help boost its growth in the third-generation wireless market. The company also said it expects a one-time charge of about $10 million to cover expenses for research and development that began before the acquisition. The company said the acquisition will lower its 2006 earnings by about a half cent per share. News of the acquisition didn’t seem to faze Qualcomm’s stock on the Nasdaq; it was trading at $45.21, down 22 cents for the day.
Wireless machine-to-machine vendor Numerex Corp. announced it acquired Airdesk Inc., which produces digital M2M products including radio modules. The companies said the deal is worth around $4 million, with an additional $1.5 million in the form of an earn-out. Numerex said it plans to issue up to 350,000 shares over three years to pay for the acquisition. Airdesk reported revenues of about $12 million last year. “The wireless M2M market is poised for substantial growth in 2006 and beyond,” said Stratton Nicolaides, chairman and chief executive of Numerex. Air-desk’s president, Michael Lang, will serve as senior vice president of sales at Numerex. The companies said integration of the two businesses is set to begin immediately.
Mobile device management software company mFormation Technologies Inc. bought Aepona Ltd., which supplies software for over-the-air settings and automatic device configuration. Mark Edwards, chief executive officer and chairman of mFormation, said the deal bolsters the company’s position in the MDM market. MFormation offers a device management solution that addresses configuration, OTA updates, feature upgrades, smart-phone management, diagnostics, enterprise management, security and customer experience management. Together the companies sell MDM solutions to more than 20 network operators around the world. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
