Israeli chipmaker Ceva Inc. (Nasdaq:CEVA); LSE:CVA), which has made no important acquisitions or investments for five years, today announced its second investment in the past two weeks. After acquiring US company Hillcrest Laboratories at a price believed to be in the tens of millions of dollars, Ceva is now announcing a $10 million investment in Canadian company Immervision. The agreement between the two companies also states that Ceva will have exclusive rights to sell licenses for using Immervision's software products.
Immervision develops optical technologies and algorithms for processing and improving images taken with wide-angle lens cameras. Among its customers are Acer, Lenovo, Motorola, and Sony.
Ceva provides technologies for designing chips for the cellular and other markets. The acquisition of Hillcrest and the investment in Immervision were designed to continue and expand Ceva's activity beyond its core mobile telephony market.
"This strategic partnership and technology investment with Immervision provides CEVA with a significant market advantage for the fast-growing wide-angle camera market, particularly in smartphones, surveillance, ADAS and robotics," Ceva CEO Gideon Wertheizer commented.
"Through the combination of Immervision's imaging technologies and CEVA's vision and AI software technologies, we are lowering the entry barriers for semiconductor providers and OEM customers into this lucrative, yet complex, technology space. As the innovator of the Panomorph lens technology, which offers superior image quality over the traditional fisheye lens for wide-angle cameras, Immervision is an excellent partner to expand our offering and royalty potential in the smart sensing space," Wertheizer added.
Ceva, which is listed on Nasdaq at a market cap of $570 million, will publish its second quarter results on Thursday.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 6, 2019
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