Peter Clarke, EE Times
(11/12/2009 8:47 AM EST)
LONDON — NXP BV continues to trade on its technology and the latest decision to license its Mifare technology to STMicroelectronics is as intriguing as any of the recent business moves that have gone before.
NXP has a position in near field communications and a commanding one in contactless ticketing with the Mifare technology that it has owned since Philips acquired the original Mifare developer, Austria's Mikron, in 1998. Mifare is reputedly the most widely installed contactless smartcard, or proximity card, technology in the world with 500 million smart card chips and 5 million reader modules sold.