Freescale Semiconductor (FSL)

[SeriousMoney]

Freescale acquires CommASIC
<PR, 10/20/05>

Company brings ultra-low power embedded Wi-Fi to Freescale's connectivity offerings

AUSTIN, Texas — October 20, 2005 — Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL, FSL.B) has acquired CommASIC, a fabless semiconductor company based in San Diego. CommASIC provides modem processing multimode technologies, including orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based solutions, such as Wi-Fi-certified 802.11 a/b/g. These solutions enable low-cost wireless broadband capability in a wide variety of mobile and consumer devices that require maximum energy efficiency for long battery life, without sacrificing style, weight or performance.

"This acquisition gives Freescale a base architecture and system expertise that can be leveraged across any OFDM-based technology such as wireless-LAN, WiMax and Digital Video Broadcast (DVB)," said Sumit Sadana, Freescale's senior vice president, strategy and business development. "CommASIC's flexible, programmable, ultra-low power baseband architecture will complement Freescale's portfolio of offerings for networking, industrial, wireless and consumer markets."

According to the 2005 ABI Research Wi-Fi forecast, an estimated 350 million devices will have embedded Wi-Fi by 2010. Freescale plans to offer integrated Wi-Fi technology for original equipment manufacturers to leverage in next-generation products such as cellular and VoIP handsets, personal multimedia players, computer peripherals and other consumer devices.

Founded in 2001, CommASIC is a privately-held company, headquartered in San Diego, California. It has 30 employees. This team will staff Freescale's newly formed San Diego Design Center, which will work in concert with other Freescale design centers to advance the company's connectivity roadmap.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NYSE:FSL, FSL.B) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. Freescale became a publicly traded company in July 2004 after more than 50 years as part of Motorola, Inc. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale, a member of the S&P 500®, is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies with 2004 sales of $5.7 billion (USD).
www.freescale.com.

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