Renesas Electronics has agreed to acquire Nokia's wireless modem business for around $200m.
The acquisition of the wireless business is part of a broader collaboration between the companies.
One result is an alliance between the companies to develop modem technologies for HSPA+/LTE (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access / Long-Term Evolution) and its evolution.
Renesas Electronics has an established line of RF transceivers for mobile handsets and it also has applications processors.
The acquisition of Nokia’s line of baseband modems will give Renesas a complete mobile handset platform.
Included in the deal will be baseband chip technologies for LTE, HSPA and GSM standards.
Around 1,100 Nokia R&D staff based in the UK, Finland, India and Denmark will transfer to Renesas.
According to Yasushi Akao, president of Renesas Electronics, the transfer of the wireless modem business will “complement our core competences and serve as the key driving forces in growing our mobile business in the global market."
"Wireless modems are an integral part of today's chipset solutions, and we believe that Renesas Electronics, as one of the key chipset vendors in the market, is in an ideal position to further develop this offering," says Kai Oistamo, executive v-p, Nokia.
Renesas Electronics has licensed the Nokia modem since 2009 and the two companies have been working together to develop an industry-leading HSPA+/LTE platform.
See also: Renesas pushes open source mobile apps with Symbian