Virage Logic completes ARC acquisition
Virage Logic Corporation has completed its acquisition of ARC International. The ARC configurable 32-bit processor cores and vertical application solutions complement Virage Logic’s broad portfolio of semiconductor IP and offer System-on-Chip (SoC) designers a single trusted source for highly differentiated IP. The acquisition expands Virage Logic's ability to serve the global semiconductor market by complementing its extensive portfolio of physical IP and standards-based advanced interface IP solutions with ARC’s widely used processor IP, a necessary component for complex SoC integrated circuits. The ARC business unit will be lead by Dr. Yankin Tanurhan, vice president and general manager of Virage Logic’s Processor and NVM Solutions, and the ARC products will continue to be marketed under their respective brands: ARC processor solutions and Sonic Focus audio enrichment technology solutions.
"Increased complexity and sky rocketing NRE costs are driving the need for further consolidation in the industry. The addition of ARC as part of Virage Logic creates a comprehensive IP portfolio giving SoC developers easy access to one stop IP solutions from the semiconductor industry’s trusted IP partner," said Richard Wawrzyniak, senior market analyst, ASIC & SoC for Semico Research. "The combined offering will enable system architects to conduct their early exploration and product definition based on a differentiated IP portfolio from a single vendor which will further enhance their ability to optimize their design specification and requirements to meet today’s increasingly narrow time to market windows and cost constraints. In addition, the merging of the ARC and Virage Logic IP portfolio’s offers the potential for the creation of larger, more highly evolved IP blocks to better meet the needs of a changing marketplace, all available from a single source. This is a watershed day for the third-party IP industry."
"The combination of ARC and Virage Logic creates a synergistic product portfolio with zero overlap that will further enhance the company’s ability to serve as a single source trusted IP partner to the global semiconductor industry. With approximately $24 million in revenue for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2009, the addition of ARC expands our product portfolio to include microprocessor cores and media subsystems and software, representing the largest segment of the semiconductor IP market," said Dr. Alex Shubat, president and CEO of Virage Logic. "Initial feedback from many of our key customers confirms our belief that there is a critical need to provide additional IP building blocks to enable successful and timely development of large SoC products. The ARC processor solutions, with more than 150 customers and 400 million ARC-based products shipped annually, is an industry standard architecture in multimedia, portable, consumer, storage, and networking SoCs, and expands Virage Logic’s overall customer base to more than 400 customers."
