Industry Expert Blogs

What does Qualcomm, Intel, and Facebook have in common? Well, for one thing they all bought network onchip communications (NoC) IP companies. As I have mentioned before, semiconductor IP is the foundation of the fabless semiconductor ecosystem and I believe this trend of acquisitions will continue. So, if you are going to start a company inside the fabless ecosystem make it semiconductor IP, absolutely.

In 2013 Qualcomm acquired the Arteris FlexNoC product portfolio, but Arteris retained existing customer contracts and continued to license and enhance FlexNoC for customers. Qualcomm does not maintain any ownership interest in Arteris and Arteris is now ArterisIP. This was one of my top 5 IP acquisitions along with Denali, Virage, MIPS, and ARM. Not only did Arteris get a VERY nice exit, they parlayed to play again another day. And today ArterisIP has more than 100 employees, more than $20M in revenue, and new technology and products coming out every year. Make no mistake about it, ArterisIP is a fierce competitor and owns the NoC market.

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