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Rambus acquires Cryptography Research

May 13, 2011

By Colin Mann

Technology licensing company Rambus Inc has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held semiconductor security R&D and licensing company Cryptography Research, Inc (CRI) for an aggregate of $342.5 million comprised of $167.5 million in cash, approximately 6.4 million shares of Rambus stock, and $50 million payable to CRI employees in cash or stock over three years.

Rambus says the deal will expand the breadth of its breakthrough technologies available for licensing with complementary technologies from CRI that include patented innovations and solutions for content protection, network security, anti-counterfeiting and financial services. Rambus estimates that this acquisition will be accretive on a pro forma basis in 2013.

“The addition of CRI’s world-class security technology is a pivotal step in our strategy to extend our IP leadership and aggressively drive our revenue growth,” said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus. “Combined with our complementary semiconductor, and lighting and display technologies, we will create an unrivalled set of innovations and solutions critical for a broad range of electronics, with particular focus on the fast growing mobile market.”

Over five billion semiconductor products secured by CRI’s technology are made under licence annually. CRI’s licensees include leading semiconductor, electronics and services companies such as Atmel, Infineon, Microsoft, NXP, Raytheon, Renesas, Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Toshiba, and Visa. CRI is led by internationally-renowned cryptographer and scientist Paul Kocher, whose accomplishments include helping author the SSL 3.0 standard, discovering differential power analysis (DPA), as well as developing techniques for securing electronic systems against DPA attacks.

“Rambus will provide our team the perfect home to continue development of technology which addresses an increasingly complex range of security requirements,” said Kocher, president and chief scientist of Cryptography Research. “With many billions of connected devices conducting electronic transactions, storing important personal data, and delivering copyrighted content, the needs for security are paramount. Our passion is solving these challenging data security problems through innovative cryptographic techniques to the benefit of our licensed customers and consumers worldwide.”

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