AUBURN HILLS ? CSR plc, a leading provider of Bluetooth technology worldwide, announced Monday night that it has purchased Clarity Technologies of Auburn Hills for $17.1 million in cash. Sloan Ventures of Birmingham was an early investor in Clarity’s audio enhancing technology.
Eric Janson, CSR Vice President of the Americas, said Clarity?s management team, except for CEO Ray Gunn, will remain intact. Gunn has resigned. Clarity will operate as a division of CSR. Clarity also will continue to provide support, software and engineering services to all its existing customers.
?The software Clarity has developed is a natural fit with the silicon that CSR sells,?? Janson said. ?Our silicon will execute the algorithms they write. It?s a stronger combination than having two separate companies work together because we are now a single entity and provide products we could not before.?
CSR and Clarity have been working together closely for the past two years. Janson said it became obvious by last summer that the two companies would make a good fit. Formal acquisition talks began in November and closed this month. Now 35 Clarity employees will join 340 CSR employees in Europe, the Americas and the Far East.
CSR is a leading Bluetooth provider with a 51 percent unit market share and 69 percent share of Bluetooth end products and modules worldwide. CSR also is a leading Bluetooth silicon supplier for mobile phones, wireless headsets and personal computers. The company posted $258 million in revenues in 2004, almost quadruple the $67 million reported in 2003.
CSR works with Tier 1 auto suppliers in Michigan, including Visteon, JCI and Delphi. CSR telematics boxes can be found in Audi and BMW vehicles in Europe as well.
Bluetooth wireless technology has been largely a promise unfulfilled until last year, when the industry shipped 150 million units. This year Janson predicts the industry will ship 300 million units.
CSR is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol CSR.L.
