Today Samsung has acquired the chipmaker company CSR‘s wireless handset technology and patents for the tune of around $310 million. CSR is a UK technology company that mainly deals in single-chip Bluetooth solutions for smartphones and other mobile devices. Along with buying out their technology they’ve also acquired a large set of patents. Cheers for playing a little defense Samsung!
This isn’t just about defending against lawsuits though. Along with Bluetooth CSR owns plenty of connectivity and location technology and patents too. This will strengthen both Samsung’s patent portfolio as well as their smartphone and MP3 player products as well. Apparently 310 was the lucky number because we are hearing Samsung paid $310 million for the deal, and will also be receiving 310 employees from CSR at the same time. That should help things out a bit.
Since they’re already spending millions and millions, and additional payment of $34.4 million will net Samsung 4.9% stake is CSR moving forward. According to CSR, “This transaction will accelerate our transformation into a higher gross margin platform company operating in attractive growth markets where we have a leading market position.” Along with 21 patents being fully transferred to Samsung, CSR is also granting them access to all their patents worldwide under a non-exclusive license.
[via SlashGear]
Good for them! Now all Samsung needs to announce to the general brainless iSheep that their A4/5 processors and flash chips are made by Samsung as well.