Alphawave IP acquires Banias Labs for coherent DSPs

Oct. 13, 2022
The company also revealed that it has signed a multi-year purchasing framework agreement with what Alphawave described as “a leading North American hyperscaler” for development and sale of optical products and DSPs, including coherent DSPs.

UK-based IP and custom silicon provider Alphawave IP Group plc (LN: AWE) says it has expanded its reach into optical communications applications with the acquisition of Banias Labs of Israel, which makes optical DSPs, including for coherent transmission. Alphawave paid approximately $240 million in cash for the assets.

Concurrently, the company also revealed that it has signed a multi-year purchasing framework agreement with what Alphawave described as “a leading North American hyperscaler” for development and sale of optical products and DSPs, including the coherent DSPs it has just acquired. Revenues from this framework agreement could exceed $300 million, the company estimates.

Banias Labs (registered in Israel as Solanium Labs) was founded in 2020 and is based near Tel Aviv. The company has approximately 50 employees, the majority of whom are focused on R&D. It’s bare-bones website touts the company as “Meshing State of the Art Security into High Speed Communications.”

"We are pleased to welcome the talented Banias Labs team to Alphawave,” commented John Lofton Holt, executive chairman of Alphawave. “This acquisition aligns with the strategic priorities that we articulated at our IPO [in May 2021], expanding our technology portfolio in high-speed connectivity to support long-term growth. Coherent optics will enable the next level of efficiencies in data center communications, addressing the increasing bandwidth and power efficiency requirements."

Those priorities in include becoming a leading supplier of PAM4 and coherent DSPs for data center applications. "Banias Labs optical DSP technology provides a strong strategic advantage for Alphawave, strengthening our roadmap of DSP silicon solutions for data centers. This acquisition enhances our portfolio of electrical and optical solutions in the most advanced process technologies,” said Alphawave’s president and CEO, Tony Pialis. “The multi-year purchasing framework includes coherent optical solutions, and with the Banias acquisition, Alphawave is expanding its total addressable market by delivering next-generation coherent optical solutions for the most advanced data centers."

This purchase announcement shortly follows the close of another acquisition, of the OpenFive business unit of SiFive on September 1 of this year for $210 million in cash. The OpenFive purchase brought in a system-on-chip (SoC) IP portfolio and development teams based in India and Silicon Valley.

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