Wipro Buys Austrian Chip Design Company

BANGALORE, India — India’s Wipro is set to acquire the privately-owned Austrian chip design services company NewLogic for about $56 million, the largest-ever acquisition by an Indian company in the semiconductor arena.

NewLogic (Lustenau, Austria) was set up in 1999 and has developed a series of intellectual property cores for wireless LAN and Bluetooth communications. The company has 120 engineers and estimated its 2005 revenues to be 14 million euro (about $ ). Infineon Technologies AG is a NewLogic customer and it was revealed in March 2003 that Infineon held a 20 percent stake in the company at that time.

The acquisition brings 120 specialist engineers to Wipro, and gives it access to 25 patent filings and 20 customers in product engineering, including the likes of Philips, Agere Systems and Infineon.

“The NewLogic acquisition is a significant step in our plans to be the leader in the wireless IP and RF technology space. It will position Wipro as a complete system-on-a-chip solution provider to our customers. The acquisition also helps us consolidate our position as leaders in this space and more particularly provides a solid base for addressing the large market in Continental Europe,” said Ramesh Emani, president, product engineering solutions, Wipro Technologies, the software and hardware design services arm of Wipro Ltd. (Bangalore, India).

“Wireless IP is a hot area and we are number one in this space,” said Hans-Peter Metzler, chief executive officer of NewLogic.

Wipro said it expects to create a stronger footprint in Europe through the acquisition, which will be completed in a month. Consideration of the acquisition involves cash payment on closure of the transaction, as well as earn outs on achieving targeted financial conditions over a three year period.