APT Licensing, which markets its apt-X brand of digital audio transmission systems to top names around the world, has been bought by CSR, a UK based firm specialising in the production of chips and software for the global audio industry.
After three years collaborating under the CSR eXtension Partner Programme, the Cambridge based firm said the deal would help both companies produce a better product and substantially strengthen its product offer and support its expansion into broader audio markets.
APTX has been through a significant growth phase seeing revenues rise annually by up to 45 per cent in recent years and has become the leading international supplier of technology enabling wireless audio transmission.
Working with CSR the firm has signed contracts with Apple, Microsoft and a host of other major consumer brands and its performance earned a visit last summer from former Business Secretary Lord Mandelson.
Under the new ownership the current staff and management team of 17 will continue to develop the apt-X brand in Belfast.
Managing director Noel McKenna said the deal was a positive development.
“It’s a fantastic step forward for us in terms of our technology and our team here.
“The beauty of the solution that we are offering now is that they can buy the chip and the software from the one company.
“We have been working as a CSR partner and we found that we were working with a lot of the same main customers. We were licensing our technology to people that were already buying CSR.
“CSR has seen that our technology is making good headway particularly in the wireless audio space and with the high end consumer electronics brands.
They have now bought the technology and the company and the team and will be able to offer that as a product line offering to their chip sales with the added value of more IP that they can sell on top of that.”
APTX’s origins go back to 1989 when the firm was started as a Queen’s University spinout based on the work of Dr Stephen Smyth.
He later left to form another firm and APT made its reputation firstly in developing high quality software and equipment for the digital broadcasting industry.
Most recently it has concentrated on the consumer sector and the transmission of hi-fi quality sound for MP3 and other audio applications.
“In acquiring APTX, CSR is buying one of the industry’s strongest audio IP portfolios and a 20 year heritage in audio expertise,” said CSR CEO Joep van Beurden.
“The closer integration of APTX’s IP with our own technologies will expand the market for its technology to more mainstream consumers and enable us to realise benefits that neither party could achieve independently.
“CSR is a leader in wireless audio, and the addition of APTX will enable us to develop an exciting new generation of excellent quality, highly differentiated products that will further enhance the consumer experience.”