Building Wireless HW and SW for Smart Homes including Wi-Fi and Zigbee

Silicon Labs announced the completion of the acquisition of Sigma Designs' Z-Wave business and the business team comprised of approximately 100 employees.

Z-Wave is a leading mesh networking technology for smart homes. Currently, the Z-Wave Alliance has more than 700 manufacturers and service providers worldwide as member companies, supplying more than 2,400 interoperable devices through Z-Wave certification.

By combining Z-Wave's mesh technology and interoperability-emphasized products with Silicon Labs' multi-protocol expertise, smart home developers can now leverage an extensive ecosystem network. Furthermore, through a wide range of end node technology options, they can seize opportunities to enter the potential market where millions of smart home users are positioned. Through this strategic acquisition, Silicon Labs has established a comprehensive portfolio of wireless hardware and software for smart homes consisting of Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth, and proprietary protocols.

Tyson Tuttle, CEO of Silicon Labs, stated: "By adding Z-Wave to Silicon Labs' extensive IoT connectivity portfolio, we can now provide a unified vision for wireless technologies supporting the smart home market. The key to designing, deploying, and managing smart home products is delivering a secure and interoperable user experience. Silicon Labs' vision for smart homes is clear. Various technologies must work together harmoniously in a secure manner, any device using Silicon Labs' connectivity technology should easily integrate into the home network, and security updates and feature upgrades should be automatically deployed," he explained.

Raoul Wijgergangs, Vice President and General Manager of Z-Wave, stated: "Silicon Labs and the Z-Wave Alliance and ecosystem will continue to advance the Z-Wave technology roadmap, allowing millions of smart home product users worldwide to experience innovation," and added: "Z-Wave is a proven technology in the market, with 100 million devices already deployed and widely used. Through this acquisition, collaboration among partners such as Amazon, Alarm.com, ADT, Samsung SmartThings, Yale, Vivint, Google Home, and Comcast will be further strengthened, and engagement with the ecosystem network will be significantly activated," he said.

Elias Nader, Acting President, CEO and CFO of Sigma Designs, stated: "We are grateful to Sigma Designs shareholders for approving the sale of the Z-Wave business to Silicon Labs by an overwhelming majority. This transaction will be an important milestone enabling shareholders to recover their capital as quickly as possible," he said.