Broadcom acquires GPS specialist Global Locate

Published 13 June 2007

Broadcom pays $146 million for GPS specialist with a technology that reduces location identification from minutes to seconds

Location-based services are growing in popularity, and for location services you need to rely on GPS. Broadcom said yesterday that it will acquire San Jose, California-based GPS provider Global Locate for $146 million to take advantage of this growing demand for global positioning system technology in mobile devices. Broadcom said that

With the acquisition of Global Locate, Broadcom will be the only semiconductor supplier in the world with top-tier customers in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM radio, and GPS.” Broadcom also highlighted the fact that Global Locate has a strong patent portfolio, with more than 175 issued and pending U.S. and foreign patents. Broadcom said it will pay an additional $80 million if certain performance goals are reached by Global Locate.

InformationWeek’s David Ardner reports that Broadcom noted that a new generation of personal navigation devices is generating demand from consumers who increasingly want the location and turn-by-turn navigation features which are becoming available. Global Locate’s semiconductor technology is already incorporated in mobile phones from cellular handset makers including TomTom NV.

A few words about Global Locate: Last year Motorola made a strategic equity investment in Global Locate. Global Locate’s World Wide Reference Network, which is included in the acquisition, provides real time A-GPS data and Long-Term Orbit services for assistance even if a network connection is unavailable. This is important: traditional GPS can take several minutes to determine locations, but Global Locate’s has built a global GPS reference network of assistance data for its A-GPS-equipped chips, reducing the time required to find a location.

In a recent story we noted DHS’s idea of equipping mobile phones with chemical and biological detectors, thus turning millions of Americans into walking chem/bio detectors. We also said that equipping mobile phones with cameras and GPS capabilities would turn millions of Americans into forward spotters for emergency agencies in the event of a disaster. Broadcom’s move brings that day one step closer.