Telit acquires Bluetooth Smart wireless communications assets to boost capabilities in low-power Internet of Things

London, January 13, 2016 - Telit Communications PLC, a global enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT), has agreed to acquire Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart, otherwise known as Bluetooth Low Energy ("BLE"), assets from Stollmann Entwicklungs und Vertriebs Gmbh ("Stollmann"), a developer and marketer of low power hardware products and software solutions for wireless communications for a non-material cash consideration. 

The acquired assets include Stollmann's Bluetooth IP, NFC and other wireless communications IP.  Thirty-five Stollmann employees, mainly R&D engineers, are also being transferred to Telit.

The acquisition will materially enhance Telit's short-range low-power Bluetooth product offering and is another step in the Group's strategy to provide a comprehensive solution to connect edge devices, such as sensors, to the Telit IoT enablement platform.

MarketsandMarkets estimates the global BLE and "Smart-Ready" market will be worth $5.6bn by 2020. BLE shipments are expected to surpass 1.2 billion units in five years, up from just 49 million units in 2013.

Oozi Cats, Telit's Chief Executive, commented: "IoT devices are increasingly being integrated into every aspect of the consumer's life, in application areas from health & wellness to retail and smart homes. The acquisition of these assets is a key development in the execution of our IoT vision of connecting enterprise edge assets - sensors and other remote devices - to the cloud using our tools such as our IoT portal.

"The additional IP will provide us with valuable expertise in Bluetooth Smart, which is set to become an important standard for IoT.  As one of the IoT's fastest expanding wireless technology areas, this IP will enable us to expand our market reach with a more comprehensive end-to-end connectivity solution."

Telit, is the global leader in Internet of Things (IoT) enablement. The company offers the industry's broadest portfolio of integrated products and services for end-to-end IoT deployments - including cellular communication modules in all technologies, GNSS, short-to-long range wireless modules, IoT connectivity plans and IoT platform services. Through the IoT Portal, Telit makes IoT onboarding easy, reduces risk, time to market, complexity and costs for asset tracking, remote monitoring and control, telematics, industrial automation and others, across many industries and vertical markets worldwide.