Silicon Image, SiBEAM Acquisition Boosts WirelessHD

You may not see the name or logo for Silicon Image emblazoned across your hardware much, but if you’re using HDMI, chances are you have their chips inside. The HD connectivity solutions company has just signed a definitive agreement to acquire SiBEAM Inc., a privately held semiconductor company that specializes in hardware designed to stream uncompressed HD video. SiBEAM also happens to be one of the founders of the WirelessHD consortium and a member of WiGig, the Wireless Gigabit Alliance.

The purchase price was a $25.5 million mixture of cash and Silicon Image stock that should close in the second quarter of this year.

What will come of the merger between the HD connectivity solutions giant and a WirelessHD brain trust? We hope this results in good news for consumers and installers everywhere – affordable, reliable wireless high-bandwidth audio/video connectivity hardware options. Sure, WirelessHD is out there, but it's never really taken off in consumer grade gear.

According to Silicon Image CEO Camillo Martino the merger will result in his company pushing SiBEAM’s extreme wireless radio frequency technology - 60GHz WirelessHD. Martino says Silicon Image plans to immediately begin working on products using the high-end wireless standard and bringing them to market as quickly as possible.

"The acquisition of SiBEAM underscores our stated mission to be the leader in advanced video connectivity solutions and SiBEAM's 60GHz wireless technology will enable us to rapidly bring the highest quality of wirelessly transmitted HD video and audio to market," said Camillo Martino, chief executive officer of Silicon Image, Inc. "Silicon Image has a proven history of establishing successful global connectivity standards, including DVI®, HDMI®, and most recently MHL™ and we are looking forward to driving WirelessHD as a global connectivity standard and to delivering "standards plus" products supporting both wireless and wired HD connectivity standards."

Silicon Image and SiBEAM will continue to support the WiGig Alliance as well as promoting and actively engaging the WirelessHD Consortium to keep pushing 60GHz WiHD.

Silicon Image has a track record for establishing successful connectivity standards that we take for granted today, such as DVI and HDMI and that's a plus for WirelessHD. With Silicon Image’s significant muscle behind SiBEAM technology there is a good chance your next AV system will have optional ports in back for hard-wiring your rig.