May 21, 2012 -- Silicon Laboratories, Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Boston-based Ember Corp. for initial consideration of $72 million, subject to an adjustment for certain working capital amounts and potential earn-out consideration.Ember is a late-stage private company offering silicon, software and development tools for 2.4-GHz wireless-mesh networking solutions being deployed in smart energy, connected home, security, lighting, and many other monitoring and control applications.

This strategic acquisition brings Silicon Labs the technology and software expertise required to enable the low-power mesh sensor networks being deployed today in a wide range of residential, commercial and industrial applications.

The Ember portfolio complements Silicon Labs' products and targets a growing market estimated to increase from $100 million in 2012 to $600 million by 2016. The combination of the companies' products will bring together microcontroller (MCU), power and isolation technology, sensors, and both sub-GHz and 2.4-GHz wireless radios into a comprehensive portfolio of highly integrated networking solutions for embedded systems.

Silicon Labs expects that the addition of Ember's high-performance system-on-chip (SOC) portfolio, advanced networking-software expertise, and a proven design and applications team will contribute to the rapid expansion of its broad-based business. Silicon Labs intends to apply the underlying technology platform and expertise to enable low-power mesh networking in not only home but also industrial and commercial applications. Further, both companies' products leverage the same underlying development environment, which is expected to accelerate the combined roadmap and support rapid adoption among the existing customer base.