TI Continues Set-Top Buying Spree with Libit Acquisition

Texas Instruments (Dallas) is making a play for the set-top market with this week's announcement that it plans to acquire Libit Signal Processing Ltd., (Tel Aviv, Israel) a developer of silicon for cable-TV and set-top boxes for the fast-growing cable access equipment market. The acquisition is an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $365 million.

The acquisition will also expand the market for TI's digital signal processor (DSP) and analog technologies into all segments of broadband communications, including xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line) and cable. TI's DSP technology converts analog voice, video, and data into digital signals to be carried over cable and other lines.

With this acquisition and the announced plans to purchase Telogy Networks (Germantown, MD), a developer of embedded communications software earlier this month, TI hopes to provide a complete package to cable equipment manufacturers and their service provider customers. The purchases fall in line with TI's strategy to move from circuit-switched to packet-switched networks.

According to industry analyst Gartner Group, the semiconductor broadband access market is expected to grow to $1 billion by the year 2003.

The transaction is expected to close by July 1, 1999.