US giant buys up (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

US giant buys up

CHIP manufacturer Intel is buying a Swindon digital TV business for £40m. The company is based in Santa Clara, California but has its European HQ in Swindon.

It is buying the radio frequency consumer business of Zarlink Semiconductor Ltd, based at Cheney Manor.

The acquisition is part of Intel's expansion into consumer electronics rather than just computers.

The company wants to put its chips into a variety of consumer electronic products, including digital televisions, digital set-top boxes and media recorders, as part of its digital home strategy.

The business that Intel is buying includes demodulators and tuners that make up what it calls the 'front end' of these consumer electronic devices.

They enable the devices to receive a digital signal, extract the audio and video streams, decompress them, and either display or store the image and audio broadcast that result.

It is understood that Zarlink will transfer around 70 people to Intel, which employs 800 to 1,000 people in Swindon.

The acquisition follows Intel's acquisition in February of Oplus Technologies for about £70m and a partnership with Royal Philips Electronics to put its chips inside a Philips-branded media centre.

Glenda Dorchak, vice president of Intel's Digital Home Group said: "Demodulation and tuner technologies are two key ingredients and play an increasingly critical role in a broad range of consumer electronic devices.

"The addition of this technology and expertise complements Intel's consumer electronics roadmap and development plans."