“As the smartphone wars heat up, Apple has acquired a key technology in the arms race,” Jessica Lessin reports.
“The company in recent months purchased Silicon Valley-based wireless chip developer, Passif Semiconductor, according to people briefed on the deal,” Lessin reports. “Passif develops communication chips that use very little power. Its technology, which includes a radio that works with a low-energy version of Bluetooth called Bluetooth LE, is promising for health-monitoring and fitness devices that need extra-long battery life.”
Lessin reports, “It isn’t clear how much Apple paid. The people said Apple tried to buy Passif a few years earlier for a price in the mid-tens-of-millions of dollars. Presumably it would be higher now… The Passif deal is right in Apple’s wheelhouse: components for next generation devices.”
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