CSR and SiRF entered into a conditional agreement under which SiRF will merge with CSR, increasing the scale of CSR in the high-growth GPS technology market and strengthening CSR's position as a global leader in both Bluetooth and GPS.
SiRF is a market leader in GPS semiconductors with strong hardware, software and systems. SiRF's significant GPS and assisted GPS (A-GPS) patent portfolio complements CSR's extensive patent portfolio in eGPS. The combined strengths of SiRF and CSR will drive forward the innovation of new chips incorporating GPS and position the enlarged CSR group to be able to take a substantial share of the fast growing GPS market in mobile devices. CSR estimates the GPS attach rate to be around 20 percent of mobile handsets in 2008 and this is expected to double by 2012.
Bluetooth and GPS are two core segments of CSR's Connectivity Center and this transaction accelerates CSR's strategy by adding a GPS solution that already has considerable traction with leading tier one customers. The two companies' complementary customer relationships also enable cross-selling of GPS and Bluetooth.
CSR’s Connectivity Center strategy exploits the high attach rates of its Bluetooth technology, integrating additional value-added technologies into its subsystem. CSR’s pioneering technique and Smart Integration approach allows different technologies to share resources and improve coexistence between radios, giving excellent end user experience. SiRF’s GPS technologies will enable CSR to accelerate its strategic goals for the Connectivity Center.