Syntiant agrees to buy Knowles’ MEMS microphone business
Knowles Corp. (Itasca, Illinois) has agreed to sell its consumer MEMS microphone business to edge AI company Syntiant Corp. (Irvine, Calif.) for US$150 million comprising $70 million in cash and $80 million in shares.
Knowles had announced it was looking for strategic options for the business in September 2023 but will continue to make medical technology microphones, capacitors, radio frequency filters and balanced armature speakers.
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For edge AI processor vendor Syntiant the purchase will bolster its offering in edge AI allowing a full-stack approach integrating sensors, processors and software.
Knowles’ SiSonic MEMS microphones are designed into smartphones, smart speakers, household appliances, wearables and automotive applications. The consumer microphones business generated revenues of US$256 million in FY 2023 and US$136 million in the first half of 2024.
“We believe almost every microphone of the future will be AI-enabled, as large language models continue to revolutionize industries by improving natural language understanding and automating complex tasks,” said Kurt Busch, CEO at Syntiant, in a statement. “This acquisition will clearly strengthen our product portfolio, tapping into a multi-billion dollar MEMS market, at the same time enabling Syntiant to offer comprehensive, end-to-end solutions that integrate sensors [microphones], processors and high-performance machine learning models, uniquely positioning Syntiant as the premier provider for AI-driven interfaces.”
50 million units shipped
Syntiant has shipped more than 50 million neural decision processors (NDPs) and deep learning models to date, the company said.
Busch said that NDP deployments will continue to often require a microphone for such AI features as voice commands, speech recognition, echo cancellation, background noise suppression, wake word detection and audio event detection.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
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