Agilent Technologies to Acquire Sirius Communications NV, Developer Of CDMA And W-CDMA Baseband ASICS.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2001 Acquisition Expected to Provide Agilent with 3G Solutions for Wireless, Hybrid PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) A handheld computer for managing contacts, appointments and tasks. It typically includes a name and address database, calendar, to-do list and note taker, which are the functions in a personal information manager (see PIM). and Mobile Information Appliance Manufacturers Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :A) today signed an agreement to acquire all of the issued share capital of Sirius Communications NV, a leading developer of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) A method for transmitting simultaneous signals over a shared portion of the spectrum. The foremost application of CDMA is the digital cellular phone technology from QUALCOMM that operates in the 800 MHz band and 1.9 GHz PCS band. application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for the 3G wireless and satellite communications market. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Sirius, founded in 1996, is a privately held fabless semiconductor company A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices implemented on semiconductor chips. It achieves an advantage by outsourcing the fabrication of the devices to a specialized semiconductor manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry or "fab. with headquarters near Brussels, Belgium. It develops code division multiple access (CDMA) and W-CDMA See WCDMA. baseband ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. technology. Adding Sirius' solutions is expected to give Agilent a broad and flexible set of 3G solutions for wireless, hybrid personal digital assistant (PDA) and mobile information appliance manufacturers. The acquisition of the issued share capital of Sirius, which currently has 19 employees, will provide Agilent with engineering talent and intellectual property, including several patents. The company focuses on developing high-performance, low-power, and highly flexible standards-based CDMA and GPS IP physical modem layer silicon solutions, peripherals and development tools. It designs highly specialized software-programmable telecom chips for use in cellular, non-cellular and satellite communications. "Agilent has vast experience in designing large digital chips that perform flawlessly the first time. Our plan is to integrate Sirius' technology with Agilent's existing data processing capability, and then combine it with our RF integrated circuits to form a complete wireless PDA solution," said Steve Hoffmann, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Imaging Electronics Division. "We also plan to merge Agilent's CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) Pronounced "c-moss." The most widely used integrated circuit design. It is found in almost every electronic product from handheld devices to mainframes. digital camera sensors, optical navigation sensors and infrared transceivers to deliver a whole new generation of mobile information appliances." Agilent's plans for Sirius include investment in and expansion of its present role into a powerful design center dedicated to creating key components for telecommunications devices and networks. Sirius will become part of Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group. "Joining Agilent Technologies is an important step in leveraging and complementing Sirius' portfolio of flexible low-power W-CDMA and navigation baseband technology," said Lieven Philips, chief executive officer of Sirius. "Agilent has an excellent reputation for its know-how in CDMA and W-CDMA test-equipment, and first-class RF technology. Having Sirius' design team as its 3G design center located at the heart of Europe is expected to ensure that Agilent is at the leading edge of universal mobile telecommunications system Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) cell phone technologies. Currently, the most common form uses W-CDMA as the underlying air interface, is standardized by the 3GPP, and is the European answer to the ITU (UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) The GSM implementation of the 3G wireless phone system. Part of IMT-2000, UMTS provides service in the 2 GHz band and offers global roaming and personalized features. ) developments." This acquisition is subject to closing conditions. About Sirius Communications NV Sirius Communications NV was spun out of IMEC, Europe's largest independent microelectronic research institute, in 1996. The company's CDMA chip solutions implement Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum techniques and can function in a wide variety of CDMA telecommunications systems. Sirius licenses its CDMAx(TM) wideband transceiver intellectual property to component manufacturers and telecommunications companies. The company is headquartered near Brussels in Leuven, Belgium. More information about Sirius is available at http://www.siriuscomm.com About Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is a global technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and healthcare. With 48,000 employees serving customers in more than 120 countries, Agilent had net revenue of $10.8 billion in fiscal year 2000. Information about Agilent can be found on the Web at www.agilent.com. This news release contains forward-looking statements (including, without limitation, statements relating to the ability of Agilent Technologies to expand its product offerings and solutions as a result of this acquisition) that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause results of Agilent Technologies to differ materially from management's current expectations. These risks include the failure to complete the acquisition, the failure to successfully integrate products and different company cultures, management teams and business infrastructure, and the failure to realize the value from expected synergies as well as other risks that are detailed in Agilent Technologies' Annual Report on Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. for the year ended October 31, 2000, and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. for the quarter ended January 31, 2001, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
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