Today NXP announced that it is acquiring Jennic, the UK based RF design company that specialises in ZigBee chips and stacks. That in itself is not surprising. The market for ZigBee silicon has been consolidating for some time, with the previous acquisitions of One RF, Chipcon and module vendor Meshnetics. It’s something that I predicted would happen last year. It’s good news for the design team at Jennic, as NXP should provide them with the scale to grow and a sales infrastructure and industry stature that increases their customer base.
However, one aspect of the deal is likely to send shockwaves through the industry. That’s the price tag for the acquisition, which is $12.2 million. Compare that to the value that TI paid for Chipcon in 2005, which was around $200 million.