Qualcomm buys Airgo, Bluetooth assets of RF Micro Devices

Wireless technology vendor Qualcomm announced it would acquire wireless LAN provider Airgo Networks and the majority of RF Micro Devices’ Bluetooth assets in separate cash deals that Qualcomm expected to close by the end of 2006.

In both cases, Qualcomm believes the acquisitions provide the company access to key wireless technologies — notably, 802.11n from Airgo and Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) from RF Micro Devices (RFMD) — to address current and future needs, said Mike Concannon, Qualcomm’s vice president of strategic products.

“Our thinking is that both of these acquisitions bring with them stand-alone products that we can leverage immediately, but the other beauty is that they bring very complementary skills that … will let us decide when is the appropriate time to integrate [at the chip level] these technologies with the bigger part of the device,” he said.

Currently, Qualcomm provides Wi-Fi solutions to its customers through system-level integration with partners like Atheros, Concannon said. While the Airgo acquisition will position Qualcomm to “take wireless LAN to that next step,” Concannon did not discount the possibility of continuing such partnerships in the future.

“It remains to be seen,” he said. “We’ve had a great relationship with those guys, and there’s a lot of synergy. There are a lot of markets out there where we still may be able to collaborate.”

Through the RFMD deal, Qualcomm plans to integrate Blutooth EDR into its Mobile Station Modem reference designs to provide its manufacturing customers with a more complete solution.

“RFMD hopes to become a broader development partner to Qualcomm’s entire product portfolio for complementary products such as power amplifiers and front-end modules,” said Bob Bruggeworth, RFMD president and CEO, in a statement. “The sale of these assets is part of an ongoing relationship with Qualcomm that we expect will continue to strengthen as we move forward.”