Samsung buys into Bluetooth with acquisition of British company CSR's wireless unit
Samsung has announced that it's taking over the wireless communications unit of British company Cambridge Silicon Radio, maker of market-leading audio solutions such as its Bluetooth aptX codec, just launched in Onkyo's new UBT-1 Bluetooth audio adapter.
The £200m deal, which will Samsung says will be finalised later this year, will see the South Korean company boosting its capabilities in wireless data communications for devices such as tablets, smartphones and portable entertainment products.
Founded in 1999 by a group of nine colleagues (above) from Cambridge Consultants, CSR's original work was to create a single-chip Bluetooth solution. It now employs over 2500 people worldwide, is the market leader in Bluetooth technology, and other short-range wireless applications such as FM, GPS, NFC and Wi-Fi.
It's headquartered in the Cambridge Science Park in the 'Silicon Fen' around the university city, and is a so-called fabless company, designing and engineering products which are made elsewhere by partners.
The contract will see Samsung taking over access to CSR's patents and licences in semiconductors for mobile communications, including Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi along with around 300 staff.
It's also expected that the Korean company will take a minor stake in CSR as a whole.
Comments
Given that the some Mac computers already support aptX, it would be a logical addition to iPhone/iPad.
You'd think so, wouldn't you? But aptX has been in MacBooks for some time, yet it didn't make an appearance in new iPad. Obviously totally unrelated to Apple instead pushing AirPlay products it makes royalties on
On that note, wonder whether it'll cost manufacturers more to license aptX from Samsung....
Given that the some Mac computers already support aptX, it would be a logical addition to iPhone/iPad.
With Samsung a major chipset provider to Apple, it'll be interesting to see whether this makes it more or less likely that we'll see aptX support in iPhones/iPads. Of course Samsung already uses aptX - in Galaxy S3, for example...