Irvine startup u-Nav Microelectronics Inc., a maker of GPS chips and software, is set to be bought by Santa Clara-based Atheros Communications Inc. for $54 million.
The cash and stock deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
Wireless chipmaker Atheros is set to pay $15.4 million in cash plus 1.28 million of its shares for u-Nav, which makes a chip that runs GPS in cars, handheld media players and phones.
The company’s chip enables the positioning system to work in any portable device and lowers the cost of making the devices.
Before being bought, it had raised about $20 million in venture funding.
U-Nav, which has 54 workers here, will be folded into Atheros’ GPS unit.
Chief Executive Greg Winner is set to stay on as general manager of the unit.
Atheros also will get u-Nav’s engineering site in Finland.
“We are enthusiastic about joining Atheros,” Winner said. “With its exemplary reputation for engineering best-in-class communication solutions, Atheros provides us with a great development environment and the opportunity to significantly expand the adoption of our GPS solutions.”
Atheros, which is publicly traded, had sales of nearly $400 million last year and a recent market value of nearly $2 billion.
Its closest competitors are Irvine’s Broadcom Corp., Newport Beach’s Conexant Systems Inc. and Bermuda’s Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
Last year u-Nav hit a rough patch.
It had some problems with rolling out its software and faced a patent suit with competitor San Jose-based SiRF Technology Inc.
It’s since struck a licensing deal with SiRF that’s set to be transferred under Atheros.
Earlier this year the company bounced back with about a dozen design wins for its chips.
Copier Deals
Irvine’s Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc., a unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp. that makes copiers, fax machines and printers, bought two Ohio copier companies.
Toshiba bought Akron-based Copier Sales MBM Inc. and Cleveland’s ImagePro Ltd. to get into the Midwestern market.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Both companies had already been reselling and servicing Toshiba’s copiers before the deal.
Toshiba’s relationship with Copier Sales, which got its start in 1971, goes back more than two decades, according to Wayne Wilkinson, general manager of Toshiba Business Solutions.
ImagePro was started in 1999 as an expansion of Copier Sales.
Local Buy
Santa Ana-based business and technology consulting group Synoptek Inc. bought a local network services and security outfit, Newport Beach-based Texum Inc.
The deal “significantly expands Synoptek’s Orange County customer base,” the company said.
Synoptek Chief Executive Tim Britt is set to head the combined companies. Texum Chief Executive Asem Abusir will head up the IT services part of the business.
Earlier this year the Business Journal pegged Synoptek as the ninth fastest growing OC private company.
Synoptek had two-year sales growth of 365% to $4.4 million in sales.
The company started out as a consulting company run by Britt, the former chief information officer for Ace Hardware Corp.’s online store.
He founded Synoptek on doing the basics for companies,ironing out inefficiencies, working on operations after a buyout and managing projects.
Synoptek does business consulting for Allergan Inc., Walt Disney Co., ConAgra Foods Inc. and Starbucks Corp., among others.
A few years into the business, Britt said he found the tech side of the company starting to grow faster than the general consulting work. Midsize companies are driving the tech side of the business, according to Britt. That side of the business has grown to make up about half of the company’s yearly sales. The company continues to scout potential acquisitions in Southern California to drive growth.
PC Sales
Worldwide PC sales are expected to be strong during the fourth quarter, according to Framingham, Mass.-based market tracker International Data Corp.
Shipments of laptops and desktops are expected to rise about 17% during the quarter, more than double the projected 8% rise a year earlier, IDC said.
For the year, IDC predicted PC shipments will grow 15% overall, up from 10% in 2006.
Consumer demand for laptops is a “key driver” of PC sales, the group said.
Roughly half of PC owners are expected to have laptops by the end of next year, according to the data.
Sales of PCs outside the U.S. and Japan will continue to be big.
The rest of the world is approaching 50% share for sales of PCs, led by Asia, Canada and Western Europe.
