Europe : picoChip announced that Samsung has made a strategic investment in the company. The amount of the investment is undisclosed, and forms part of the $27 million of new investment D-round announced in July by picoChip which was led Highland Capital Partners.

The round has brought the total company funding to $70.5 million, placing picoChip in an unrivalled position to build upon the success it has already achieved in the wireless infrastucture market. Samsung manufactures 3G base transceiver stations and basestation controllers, as well as basestations for WiMAX. The company is one of the suppliers for Sprint¹s $3bn nationwide mobile WiMAX network rollout in the USA to deploy in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Providence, R.I., and recently won the contract for New York.

"Samsung is a world leader in wireless infrastructure, and it is a testament to picoChip's prominence as a silicon vendor for this market that Samsung has chosen to invest in us," said Guillaume d'Eyssautier, president and CEO of picoChip. "The new round of funding reaffirms our leadership in multi-core DSP for advanced wireless markets with our WiMAX, HSPA and femtocell products."

"Our strategic investment in picoChip represents Samsung's commitment to advanced wireless," said Brian Kang, principal investment manager at Samsung Ventures America. "picoChip is a key player with leading edge solutions for both WiMAX and femtocells, and we are delighted to be working with them as we address these growing wireless markets."