Synaptics is to acquire the DSP Group in a deal worth $538m to boost its AI and IoT technology

The DSP Group has wireless chips for multiple markets in the Internet of Audio Things (IoAT) with DECT/CAT-iq, ULE, Wi-Fi, PSTN, HDClear, video and VoIP technologies. The company had a turnover of $35.8m in the last quarter, with a turnover of $114.5m in 2020. The deal at $22.00 per share values the company at $528m

Synaptics recently announced its Low Power Edge AI initiative and the addition of DSP Group's SmartVoice products to Synaptics' Katana smart vision platform creates a complete portfolio that can both serve existing customer needs and address the significant future market. In addition, the combination further strengthens the Synaptics wireless connectivity portfolio by adding DECT Ultra Low Energy (ULE) for intelligent home security systems.

The DSP Group, founded in 1987, initially started out licensing DSP cores such as Pine, Oak and Teak. In 2002 the group combined its IP licensing business with Parthus Technologies to create Ceva and focussed instead on audio digital signal processors and more recently on AI cores. In 2020 it acquired noise cancellation specialist SoundChip in Switzerland, and as well as the headquarters in San Jose, California, has offices in Nuremberg, Germany, Edinburgh and Daresbury in the UK.

"We continue to invest in technologies that tilt our product mix toward IoT applications," said Michael Hurlston, President and CEO of Synaptics. "DSP Group's expertise in SmartVoice and ULE wireless solutions, coupled with Synaptics' leadership position in far-field speech recognition and IoT directed Wi-Fi/BT combos enables us to deliver increasingly differentiated solutions to our combined customer base, while positioning us to lead the transition to AI enabled devices at the edge of the network."

"We are excited to join forces with Synaptics, a recognized leader in products for IoT. This combination provides a great result for our shareholders who have supported us through this journey, delivering meaningful and certain value," said Ofer Elyakim, CEO of DSP Group. "Our complementary portfolios together with the combination of our world-class engineering teams creates an exciting opportunity for DSP Group's core technology to extend further into our existing customers' product portfolio."

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