Icera to be shuttered

Icera, the Bristol wireless star-up sold to Nvidia, is to have its operations closed down by Q2 2016.

Nvidia winds down Icera

Nvidia says it is open to offers for the company or its technology.

Icera was seen for many years as the flagship of UK semiconductor start-ups. It raised $250 million in VC but never won a hand-set design-in with its dales going into dongles.


In 2011, Icera was sold to Nvidia for $367 million.


‘The company purchased Icera in 2011 to engage the smartphone revolution with a leading integrated application processor and modem platform,’ says Nvidia.

The aspiration did not materialise. In 1 Nvidia’s Tegra sales were down 14.5% y-oy. Sales of Icera-based chips accounted for less than 5% of Nvidia’s total sales.

Consequently, says Nvidia, ‘the company has reshaped its strategy to focus on high-growth opportunities in gaming, automotive and cloud computing applications like deep learning, where its visual computing expertise is greatly valued.’

Nvidia’s automotive sales have doubled in the last 12 months.

‘The Icera 4G LTE modem meets the company’s needs for the next year or more,’ says Nvidia, ‘going forward, the company expects to partner with third-party modem suppliers and will no longer develop its own.’

The Icera modem operation has approximately 500 employees, based primarily in the UK and France, with smaller operations in Asia and the United States.


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