Intel continues to hone its focus by selling off parts of the company.
The chip giant confirmed yesterday it has agreed to sell the assets of its
media and signaling business to Eicon Networks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
While still by far the dominant chip supplier, Intel has faced increased competition from AMD. PC sales growth rate has also dipped
worldwide in the past year and Intel’s been wrestling with an oversupply of inventory.
In response, CEO Paul Otellini announced in April a 90-day review of operations, which has resulted in layoffs and the sale of some business units.
In April, Intel announced the sale its communications and applications processor business to Santa Clara, Calif. neighbor Marvel Technology Group for $600 million.
More recently, last month, Intel announced it was letting go of about a thousand managers worldwide in a bid to streamline decision-making and boost efficiency.
Intel said the deal with Eicon will enable it to focus on its core communications and embedded processor businesses. These include the Intel’s core chip architecture products, network processors, modular communications platforms and optical modules.
Eicon expects the acquisition to help it become a leading player in the
media processing and signaling market. The company will be getting all the
products from Intel’s earlier acquisition of Dialogic as well as Host Media
Processing software HMP-enabled blades. Also included is Intel’s complete
line of SS7, PBX integration and gateway solutions.
“Eicon’s and Intel’s media and signaling products complement each other
well,” said Eicon’s president and CEO Nick Jensen, in a statement.
“We expect this acquisition to extend our global reach with solutions
for both traditional circuit switch communication technology and
leading-edge IP platforms for both enterprises and service providers.”
Intel’s media and signaling business includes approximately 600
employees. In a release Intel said it expected “a significant number of
these employees” to become employees of Eicon.
This sale does not impact Intel’s communications infrastructure products
for telecommunications equipment manufacturers. These include Intel’s
Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA) blades and carrier-grade rack
mount servers, and its CompactPCI compute blades and chassis.
Eicon said it plans to continue working closely with Intel as an active
member of the Intel Communication
Alliance.
As part of the acquisition announcement Eicon said investment groups
Investcorp Technology Ventures and Tennenbaum Capital Partners will invest
in Eicon.