Sveriges Sivers buys 5G mmWave startup MixComm for $ 135 million
Sivers Semiconductor announced it will buy startup MixComm in a transaction worth $ 135 million. The move represents an investment from Sweden’s based Sivers in the market for 5G in millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum bands.
Sivers is a fantastic semiconductor company that is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. It designs complex chips and then sells these designs to other silicon suppliers or directly to major electronics manufacturers. The company currently focuses on two main business areas: 5G and fiber.
Siver’s purchase of MixComm ?? which is based in Chatham, New Jersey, and counts 20 employees ?? represents an attempt by the company to double the mmWave flavor of 5G. Wireless network operators have rapidly deployed 5G worldwide, but most have focused on installing 5G in their low- and mid-band spectrum holdings rather than in high-band, mmWave spectrum. This is because mmWave 5G signals often cannot travel more than a few thousand feet and usually cannot penetrate buildings and other objects.
Still, Siver’s CEO Anders Storm said that “most of the world will start rolling out” mmWave 5G. During a conference call to discuss the merger, he also pushed back against the notion that Verizon ?? one of the world’s foremost proponents of mmWave 5G ?? withdraws from technology.
US operators such as Verizon and AT&T were early supporters of the mmWave flavor of 5G, but have begun to shift their focus to mid-band 5G. mmWave advocates such as Qualcomm have claimed that the technology will soon be launched by operators in places such as China, Russia and South Korea. Though, early reports from South Korea indicates at least lukewarm support among mmWave 5G operators.
MixComm was founded in 2017 and has raised approximately $ 15 million in venture capital. It works on the same basic business model as Sivers: designing chips and then selling those designs to other companies. According to Sivers, MixComm so far counts 18 chip design gains and counts customers such as Cambium, a named “level” 5G infrastructure customer and an unnamed “large” US communications service provider.
Sivers believes that the acquisition of MixComm will put the company on a better footing to compete with Qualcomm, Analog Devices and Movandi. Sivers now adorns 5G mmWave products ranging from base stations to repeaters to fixed wireless internet hotspots to backhaul equipment.
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?? Mike Dano, Editor-in-Chief, 5G and Mobile Strategies, Easy reading | @mikeddano