Irish chip designer Parthus Technologies today said it was paying an initial $41.4 million (euro 46.80 million) in cash and shares to acquire privately-held US group Chicory Systems Inc.
Parthus, which develops silicon and software designs for the mobile appliance market, said the acquisition would offer an efficient technology that would save time and power for the next generation mobile Internet.
Parthus will pay $11.7 million cash and up to 22.6 million in shares, and an additional 20.6 million shares may be issued if Chicory achieves performance targets.
"The addition of Chicory with its highly-advanced acceleration technology perfectly complements our portfolio of platform-level IP (Intellectual Property)," Parthus Chief Executive Mr Brian Long said.
"As ever, we remain on the look-out for suitable companies that will complement our technology and enhance the Parthus offering," he continued.
Shares in Parthus - which peaked at a record high of 419 pence sterling last September only to be hit hard by semiconductor industry gloom - were up 4.5 per cent to 105p on the London stock exchange at 2.50 p.m. today, valuing the company at some £562 million pounds.
Mid-FTSE 250 stock Parthus has outperformed the UK information technology hardware sector by 9.5 per cent in the year to date, while under-performing the FTSE All Share index by 37.8 per cent.
Chicory Systems is venture-backed and was incorporated in October 1999 by John Derrick, a former computer architect at IBM. It has 26 employees, including microprocessor design engineers and algorithm development experts.
In its first full year of operations, Chicory Systems - which has developed an advanced technology for accelerating mobile Internet applications by migrating complex systems software into high-performance silicon - reported a loss of some $1.3 million.
Parthus last week said it had signed a licensing agreement with French chip maker STMicroelectronics.