MediaTek to foray into making chipsets for the automative industry

Image Credit: REUTERS

By tech2 News Staff /  30 Nov 2016 , 14:45

MediaTek is known for making chipsets for smartphones, connectivity, home entertainment and IoT devices. The company has today announced its new plan to foray into the automotive industry in the beginning of Q1 2017.

According to the company, the market for connected and autonomous vehicles is growing rapidly and there is need for advanced technologies that offer a blend of power-efficiency, processing power and affordability. MediaTek believes that with its technology expertise in chipset design. It positions the company well to bring innovative multimedia, connectivity and sensor solutions to the automotive industry.

MediaTek solutions for automobile manufacturers will cover four key areas, including:

• Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (Vision-based ADAS): Reimagined from the ground up, MediaTek’s ADAS system will feature cutting-edge, decentralised Vision Processing Unit (VPU) solutions to optimally handle large amounts of real-time visual streaming data. MediaTek employs Machine Learning to increase the accuracy and speed of detection, recognition and tracking, making it more comparable to human decision-making performance.
• Precision Millimeter Wave (mmWave) Radar: MediaTek is drawing on its technology expertise and heritage in high frequency RF and connectivity, bringing the automotive industry mmWave radar solutions that use higher frequencies to gain better object resolution and more precise detection. Residing in the high frequency band, mmWave radar can recognise targets more accurately and is more resistant to fog, rain, snow and other weather conditions than current types of radar.
• Superior In-Vehicle Infotainment: MediaTek has developed powerful 2D and 3D processing technologies to ensure its application processors perform at the highest levels of efficiency and speed. MediaTek in-car entertainment solutions offer a high level of integration of navigational and multimedia features and connectivity options.
• Enhanced Telematics: MediaTek Telematics is a robust solution to handle a variety of high-bandwidth information transfers and can support a wide variety of connectivity standards (Cellular 4G/3G/2G, Wi-Fi, BT/BLE ) and map-based applications. MediaTek Telematics offerings align with the company’s core strengths: power-efficiency, highly integrated system-in-packages, broad networking and connectivity support.

“The demands of connected and autonomous vehicles require a unique portfolio of technologies. MediaTek’s core competencies create a natural progression for us to design for the future of driving,” said JC Hsu, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the New Business Department Business Unit at MediaTek.

“We have a strong technology portfolio generated from $10 billion in research and development investment over the past 12 years from modem and RF advancements, computing technologies and connectivity to intelligent algorithms. We are developing semiconductor solutions to make an impact in the automotive industry and are focused on core areas of in-vehicle Infotainment, Telematics and safety ADAS to further the evolution toward autonomous driving. The complicated systems of tomorrow’s high-tech cars will require a high degree of integration, innovative power management and improved functionality to support both the highest level of safety demands and driving experiences consumers need. MediaTek will bring one integrated package of semiconductors to the market – a holistic solution that is now lacking in the auto industry.”

Qualcomm agrees to buy NXP Semiconductors for $47 billion as it expands its reach beyond phones

Image: Reuters

  27 Oct 2016 , 18:16

Qualcomm Inc said on Thursday it agreed to buy NXP Semiconductors NV for about $47 billion, including debt, as it seeks to expand the reach of its chips from phones to cars. The deal would make Qualcomm, which supplies chips to Android smartphone makers and Apple Inc, one of the biggest suppliers to the fast-growing market of chips used by the automotive industry.

Qualcomm said it would offer $110 per share in cash, a premium of 11.5 percent to NXP Semiconductor’s Wednesday’s close. The equity value of the deal is $37.88 billion, according to Reuters calculations based on the company’s 344.4 million diluted shares as of Oct. 2. Qualcomm intends to fund the transaction with cash on hand and new debt.

The company gets the bulk of its revenue from chip sales but most of its profit comes from wireless patents it licenses to the mobile industry. The transaction, which is expected to close by the end of 2017, is structured to use offshore cash flow in a tax-efficient manner to rapidly reduce leverage, Qualcomm said. The company expects the deal to significantly add to adjusted earnings immediately upon its close and generate $500 million of cost savings annually within two years after the deal closes.

Qualcomm had sat out the transformative consolidation sweeping the industry, which has seen mega-deals such as Avago buying Broadcom for $37 billion last year. NXP closed a nearly $12 billion deal to buy U.S.-based Freescale Semiconductor last December, creating the world’s top maker of automotive electronics and doubling the percentage of its auto-related revenue to 40 percent.

The combined company is expected to have annual revenue of more than $30 billion, the companies said. San Diego-based Qualcomm is facing slowing smartphone sales and stiff competition from Chinese and Taiwanese rivals. The company is currently ranked third in terms of revenue among global semiconductor companies in 2015, while Eindhoven-based NXP is ranked seventh, according to research firm IHS.

Goldman Sachs and Evercore were financial advisers to Qualcomm while Centerview Partners LLC advised its board. Qatalyst Partners, Barclays and Credit Suisse were financial advisers to NXP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek were legal counsels. NXP’s shares rose 2.4 percent to $101, while Qualcomm shares were up nearly 2 percent to $69.50 in premarket trading.

Reuters