Sony headquarters in Japan. Sony will acquire the Israeli company Altair Semiconductor for $212 million. Photo: Shuichi Aizawa via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Japanese electronics giant Sony announced Tuesday that it will acquire the Israeli company Altair Semiconductor for $212 million, with the deal closing in early February.

“Altair, an Israel-based company, owns modem chip technology and related software for LTE (Long Term Evolution), a 4G cellular standard for mobile devices. Altair develops and sells products focused on LTE technology, and its modem chips stand out for their low power consumption, high performance, and competitive cost,” Sony said, adding that it plans to use the acquisition to develop a “new breed of cellular-connected, sensing component devices.”

Altair was founded by former Texas Instruments executives CEO Oded Melamed, CTO Yigal Bitran, and VP of Marketing Eran Eshed.