ATI snags NxtWave Communications

In an all-cash deal, ATI Technologies Inc. will acquire broadband silicon maker NxtWave Communications Inc. to expand its set-top box digital signal processing business. The deal is valued at $20 million.

The acquisition of the broadband receiver technology provider will add demodulation technology in the front end communications and its back-end solutions with the ATI XILLEON product line, ATI said.

As a result of the deal, ATI will acquire 55 new employees, 50 of whom are engineers and incur $2 million more in expenses per quarter.

The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing and legal conditions, is slated to close on June 28.

Separately, Scientific-Atlanta Inc. announced plans to use ATI's chips and software in its Explorer set-top boxes. The XILLEON technology, which includes features such as dual display and high-definition video decode, will enable developers to use a single platform for multiple markets. The XILLEON 220 integrates into a single chip all processor, graphics, video, audio an input/output capabilities to enable the delivery of video-on-demand, 3D gaming, multi-stream video, personal video recording and picture-in-picture.