Synaptics Incorporated and DSP Group, Inc. announced the signing of a definitive agreement, unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, whereby Synaptics acquires DSP Group, a leading global provider of voice and wireless chipset solutions for converged communications, at $22 per share in an all-cash transaction.

The transaction is expected to be financed through a combination of cash on hand and a fully committed, incremental debt financing arrangement with a projected close by the end of calendar year 2021, subject to DSP Group shareholder approval and customary closing conditions. 

DSP Group has leadership positions across multiple markets in the Internet of Audio Things (IoAT) with growth opportunities in low power SmartVoice, unified communications and collaboration, and wireless IoT devices.

Synaptics recently announced its Low Power Edge AI initiative, which opens a significant long-term opportunity with ABI research predicting approximately 2.5 billion TinyML units to be sold by 2030.

The addition of DSP Group's SmartVoice products to Synaptics' Katana smart vision platform creates a complete portfolio that can both serve existing customer needs and address the significant future market. In addition, the combination further strengthens Synaptics' industry-leading wireless connectivity portfolio by adding DECT Ultra Low Energy (ULE), which enables a fully-featured intelligent home security solution.

"We continue to invest in technologies that tilt our product mix toward IoT applications," said Michael Hurlston, president and CEO of Synaptics. "DSP Group's expertise in SmartVoice and ULE wireless solutions, coupled with Synaptics' leadership position in far-field speech recognition and IoT directed Wi-Fi/BT combos enables us to deliver increasingly differentiated solutions to our combined customer base, while positioning us to lead the transition to AI enabled devices at the edge of the network."