Silicon Labs has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Energy Micro AS. Based in Oslo, Norway, the late-stage privately held company offers the industry’s most power-efficient portfolio of 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) and is developing multi-protocol wireless RF solutions based on the ARM Cortex-M architecture.

 

This strategic acquisition accelerates Silicon Labs’ growth opportunities and positions the company as the foremost innovator in energy-friendly embedded solutions. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) market, coupled with continued deployment of smart grid and smart energy infrastructure, is driving strong demand for connected devices in which low-power capabilities are increasingly important. Industry experts predict that the number of connected devices for the IoT will top 15 billion nodes by 2015 and reach 50 billion nodes by 2020.