US : Icera, a provider of software defined wireless modem chipsets, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to merge with Sirific Wireless, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in advanced CMOS RF transceivers.

The company said this will enable Icera to deliver a complete chipset solution for the mobile broadband market, which industry analysts expect to grow from just 90 million subscribers today to 1.3 billion by 2012.

Icera noted that the deal accelerates its time to market and competitive position for complete wireless modem chipsets used in mobile broadband datacards, USB dongles, laptops, mobile internet devices and mobile phones.

Stan Boland, President and CEO of Icera, said: "Sirific has industry leading CMOS RF expertise which greatly complements Icera's category-defining soft baseband technology. The merger of the two companies enables Icera to deliver all of the complex modem silicon to manufacturers of cellular data devices and phones, strengthening our emerging position as a tier 1 supplier in the mobile broadband market."

Tajinder Manku, Founder and CTO of Sirific Wireless said: "We are excited by the opportunity to combine our resources with those of the Icera team to create an industry-leading wireless modem chipset company."

Sirific's range of advanced single-chip, multi-band, multi-mode (HSDPA, HSUPA, WCDMA, EDGE, GPRS, GSM) CMOS RF transceivers integrate advanced direct up-/down-conversion architectures, a patented frequency synthesizer, a dual-receive path to support receive diversity and a DigRF-compliant baseband interface to increase functionality, while reducing cost, size and power consumption.

Icera's Livanto is a software baseband for mobile phones and cellular data devices. A new type of processor - DXP in Livanto, allows all the wireless modem functions to be implemented in a software modem called Adaptive Wireless.

Livanto delivers high performance HSPA solution, enabling consumers to send and receive large email files with attachments, speedily access web pages and download music tracks over the air in seconds. Already supporting 2.5G standards, GSM, GPRS and EDGE as well as the highest performance 3G (WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA), Livanto will be developed for additional air interfaces, including HSPA+ and LTE which can be consolidated as a multimode solution on the same device.

The existing Sirific design locations in Richardson, Texas, USA and Waterloo, Canada will be retained. The locations will continue to focus on advanced CMOS RF silicon and system design. This will bring the total number of design locations for the combined company to five and the total number of employees to 260.

The boards of directors of each of the companies have approved the merger. The closing, which is expected to occur in Q2 2008, remains subject to customary closing conditions.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The merged companies will use the Icera name.