INSIDE Contactless Completes Purchase of Atmel’s Secure Microcontroller Solutions Business, Series D Funding Raises €50 Million ($65 million) from Current and New Investors to Finance Acquisition
Posted by Jan Nygren (jnygren) on Oct 01 2010 at 12:22 PM
News >> News

INSIDE Contactless Completes Purchase of Atmel’s Secure Microcontroller Solutions Business

  Series D Funding Raises €50 Million ($65 million) from Current and New Investors to Finance Acquisition

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, October 1, 2010 – INSIDE Contactless, a leading provider of contactless secure transaction chip technologies, today announced it has completed the acquisition of Atmel Corporation’s (Nasdaq: ATML) Secure Microcontroller Solutions (SMS) business.  Pursuant to the agreement, INSIDE paid approximately $32 million in cash after an adjustment based on the working capital of the transferred business at the closing on September 30, 2010, subject to an additional cash consideration of up to $21 million if certain earn-out targets are met in 2010 and 2011.

“The products, markets, technologies, expertise and experience we are gaining from Atmel’s Secure Microcontroller Solutions business are 100 percent complementary to INSIDE’s current business in all aspects, and therefore we see lots of positive synergies going forward,” said Rémy de Tonnac, chief executive officer for INSIDE Contactless.  “As important, this acquisition provides us with greater critical mass in terms of company size, as well as the diversification of revenue, to ensure our global positioning, future growth and success.”

The agreement also provides INSIDE a royalty-based, intellectual property license agreement to support current and future SMS products.  In addition INSIDE entered into a multi-year supply agreement to continue sourcing wafers from the fabrication facility in Rousset, France that Atmel recently sold to LFoundry GmbH.

With operations in Rousset, France and East Kilbride, UK, Atmel’s Secure Microcontroller Solutions business has a broad portfolio of contact and contactless integrated circuits for smart cards and security applications, including secure microcontrollers, embedded security chips and smart card reader ICs.  SMS products have many of the highest security certifications in the industry, including Common Criteria EAL4+/EAL5+, FIPS 140-2, ZKA and EMVCo.  Approximately 160 employees were transferred to INSIDE as part of the assets and shares purchase transaction.

In order to finance the acquisition and the future development of the newly formed group, INSIDE also announced today that it has successfully closed a €50 million (approximately $65 million) round of funding (Series D Preferred shares) led by current shareholders Gimv N.V. and Sofinnova Partners.  Other participants in the round included existing investors Vertex Israel, Euro US Ventures, GGV Capital, Qualcomm Inc., Nokia Growth Partners, Samsung Ventures and Visa


International and new investors Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement (FSI, the French sovereign wealth fund), for €7.5 million and Atmel for € 3million.

“We are very grateful for the ongoing support of our financial and corporate investors, led by Gimv and Sofinnova Partners, which was key to successfully closing this competitive transaction,” said Richard Vacher Detourniere, general manager and chief financial officer for INSIDE.  “We are also very happy to welcome FSI and Atmel as new investors who will further strengthen our already strong shareholder base and international network.”

About INSIDE Contactless

INSIDE Contactless leads the market in open-standard contactless innovation. The company has delivered more than 400 million contactless platforms worldwide, and its contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) solutions power the next generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. INSIDE’s work in contactless standards and its 65 families of patents, including essential NFC patents, play a leading role in establishing industry direction. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, Warsaw, Seoul and San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.insidecontactless.com <http://www.insidecontactless.com> .
 

# # #