SpatialNews Press Release
SiRF Technology and Conexant Combine Global Positioning
System Businesses
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NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., July 2, 2001--SiRF Technology Inc. of San Jose, Calif., a leading
developer of global positioning system-enabled location technology, and Conexant Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNXT), a
worldwide leader in semiconductor system solutions for communications applications, today announced the signing of a
definitive agreement under which SiRF will obtain assets relating to the global positioning system (GPS) business of Conexant.
Under the terms of the agreement, Conexant's GPS assets, including intellectual property, will be contributed to SiRF in
exchange for stock in SiRF, currently a privately held company. As a part of the agreement, Conexant will receive certain
license rights to SiRF's GPS technology, and will retain rights to Conexant-developed GPS technology for use in mobile
communications applications.
The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval, approval by SiRF's stockholders and other customary closing
conditions.
This business combination bolsters the core technology-development team at SiRF and provides SiRF with complementary
products, technologies, intellectual property and a customer base to significantly enhance its position in the rapidly growing GPS
consumer and automotive market segments.
"As a leader in the GPS market, part of our corporate strategy is to continuously expand our location technologies and
expertise," said Jackson Hu, president and chief executive officer of SiRF.
"Conexant has a long history of innovations and excellence in the GPS industry, so this is an excellent match for us. The
strength of the Conexant GPS team is one of the most attractive benefits of this agreement, and we look forward to their
continuing contributions."
"SiRF has remained steadfastly committed to the GPS marketplace since its inception, as evidenced by their leadership
position in location technology," said Moiz Beguwala, senior vice president and general manager of Conexant's Wireless
Communications Division.
"Conexant has shared this commitment for more than two decades. We believe this combination of assets will create an
outstanding pure-play GPS-enabled location technology company with the necessary focus and resources to develop
leading-edge products that will benefit the location-services marketplace.
"This agreement also allows Conexant to concentrate its efforts on strategic wireless-design activities, while delivering
enhanced GPS functionality to our cellular customer base."
"Both SiRF and Conexant share the vision of delivering location-awareness to consumers by integrating GPS into an
increasingly wide variety of innovative mobile devices to help make the world a safer, more convenient place," said Kanwar
Chadha, SiRF founder and vice president of marketing.
"The complementary customer base and strong product technologies that result from our union should accelerate our mission
and enhance our ability to deliver market leading products to our customers in a timely manner."
SiRF plans to retain all of Conexant's GPS employees, and will establish offices in Newport Beach, and Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, where Conexant's GPS employees are currently located. SiRF will support acquired GPS chip-set product lines and
continue delivering these products to customers.
Conexant's GPS module customers will continue to receive support from Conexant's Time-To-Market module systems
solutions organization.
About SiRF
SiRF Technology develops and markets semiconductor and software products that are designed to enable location
awareness in high-volume mobile consumer devices and commercial applications. Location awareness refers to the ability of a
device to determine and make use of the information regarding its location.
SiRF's products enable a range of devices to utilize GPS to detect location and have been integrated into mobile consumer
devices, such as automobile navigation systems, GPS-based portable computing peripherals and handheld GPS navigation
devices, and into commercial applications, such as property tracking devices and fleet management systems.
SiRF markets and sells its products in four target markets: wireless handheld, automotive, portable computing and embedded
consumer applications. Learn more about SiRF at www.sirf.com.
About Conexant
Conexant Systems, Inc. is a worldwide leader in semiconductor system solutions for communications applications. Conexant
leverages its expertise in mixed-signal processing to deliver integrated systems and semiconductor products through two
separate businesses: Conexant and Mindspeed Technologies.
Conexant's personal networking business is focused on digital infotainment, personal imaging, wireless communications and
personal computing products that are used in mobile communications and the broadband digital home. Mindspeed Technologies
is focused on Internet infrastructure products including WAN transport, multiservice access and broadband access for
applications that extend from the edge of the Internet all the way to its optical core.
Conexant is headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif. and delivered revenues of $2.1 billion for fiscal 2000. The company is a
member of the S&P 500 and NASDAQ-100 indices. To learn more, visit us at www.conexant.com.
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Jul 2, 2001
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