Aricent acquires SmartPlay for $180 million

Bengaluru: Design services firm Aricent Inc. on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Bengaluru-based semiconductor services firm SmartPlay Technologies Pvt. Ltd for around $180 million.

SmartPlay has around 1,200 employees in India, Germany, Singapore and the US, the company said in a statement. Pradeep Vajram, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of SmartPlay, will assume the role of president of Aricent’s semiconductor business unit and report to Frank Kern, CEO at Aricent, the company said in a statement.

“We can now deliver a more powerful proposition to clients across industries that need smart silicon and embedded software to accelerate their R&D (research and development). Vajram brings 25 years of semiconductor industry experience to Aricent, having executed design and development of semiconductor products at all levels of responsibility,” Kern said.

Vajram set up SmartPlay in 2008 after selling his earlier company Spike Technologies to Qualcomm Inc. for around $20 million in 2004. Vajram later served as vice-president, engineering, at Qualcomm.

The acquisition will also expand Aricent’s 10,000-strong engineering team, which caters to nine core industries including telecommunications, networking, consumer electronics, industrial automation, semiconductor, automotive, internet services, consumer and enterprise software and media and entertainment.

“Our combined expertise in silicon, software and connectivity will help propel product development for our clients in some of the most exciting technology areas—working across automotive, consumer electronics, industrial automation, semiconductor and other industries,” Kern said.