Qualcomm Atheros
Qualcomm Atheros is a developer of semiconductors for network communications, particularly wireless chipsets. Founded under the name Atheros in 1998 by experts in signal processing from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley and the private industry, the company went public in 2004.
On January 5, 2011, it was announced that Qualcomm had agreed to a takeover of the company for a valuation of US$3.7 billion. When the acquisition was completed on May 24, 2011, Atheros became a subsidiary of Qualcomm operating under the name Qualcomm Atheros.
Qualcomm Atheros chipsets for the IEEE 802.11 standard of wireless networking are used by over 30 different wireless device manufacturers.
Wilocity, a fabless semiconductor company found by ex-Intel employees in 2007, was purchased by Qualcomm in July 2014, and absorbed into Qualcomm Atheros. Qualcomm Atheros thus gaining know-how for IEEE 802.11ad (60 GHz).
History
Atheros was co-founded in 1998 by Teresa Meng, professor of engineering at Stanford University and a researcher in digital signal processing and radio frequency technology, and John L. Hennessy, then provost and now president of Stanford University. The following year, Atheros named Rich Redelfs as president and CEO. In 2000, Atheros publicly demonstrated its inaugural chipset, the world's first WLAN implemented in CMOS technology and the industry's first high-speed 802.11a 5 GHz solution.