Buying Bluetooth

Broadcom Corporation has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Zeevo, the privately-held, Santa Clara, CA based provider of semiconductor and software for Bluetooth wireless headset products, for $32.0 million.

"The acquisition of Zeevo speeds our entry into the huge market for Bluetooth headset devices with a dedicated solution that complements our targeted offering of Bluetooth products," said Robert A. Rango, Group Vice President of Broadcom's Mobile & Wireless Group.

Broadcom has already had success with its own line of Bluetooth products. Last November, it disclosed that Motorola had selected its Blutonium single-chip Bluetooth transceiver solutions for several of that company’s mobile phone products.

The news of the acquisition comes just as the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) released research showing consumer awareness of the new wireless technology is on the increase.

A study the Group commissioned polled 1300 consumers between age 18-70 in the US, UK and Japan during the autumn of 2003 and again in the autumn of 2004. Between the two surveys, consumer awareness increased from 47% to an impressive 77%. In Japan, it increased from 43% to 61%, and in the US, it almost doubled from 22% to 41%.

Compared to awareness of Wi-Fi, awareness of Bluetooth technology was more than double in the UK and Japan, while on par in the US.