MediaTek To Acquire Wireless Assets From ADI

Taiwan-based MediaTek Inc., maker of semiconductors for wireless communications and digital media, agreed to purchase assets of the Analog Devices Inc. Othello radio and SoftFone baseband chipset product lines. The deal, which also includes certain cellular handset baseband support operations, was made for about $350 million in cash. The move could boost MediaTek's profile in China's upcoming 3G telecommunications market. MediaTek's wireless handset division will gain about 400 product development employees, an established global customer base, new radio transceiver and baseband chipset products (like GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, and TD-SCDMA chipsets) and key ADI intellectual property. ADI will continue to invest in the wireless handset market by focusing on developing high-performance analog, micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS), and programmable digital signal processing (DSP) products. The deal is expected to close at the end of 2007.