Telit has announced that it has agreed to acquire Silicon Valley-based GainSpan Corporation
(“GainSpan”). GainSpan is a wireless connectivity solution provider that specializes in the
design and development of ultra-low power Wi-Fi technology. The company manufactures and
commercializes chips and modules for battery-powered devices and related intellectual property
(IP) with embedded software, including network stacks and application reference designs.
GainSpan has over 90 employees, mostly R&D and application and support engineers, spread
across an R&D center in Bangalore, India and San Jose, California.
“As we enter an era of maturity for the IoT, we are starting to witness the appearance of spaces
within it such as the Internet of Sensors, the Internet of Cars, and the Internet of Digital,” said
Oozi Cats, CEO, Telit. “With some exceptions, the ability to cut the power cord is an essential
growth engine for all these branches of the IoT.”
According to the September 2016 “IoT Forecasts” from Machina Research, by 2025 about 75%
of the more than 27 billion IoT connections will be short range, which is largely comprised of the
various types of Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a leading technology for applications within the IoT that are
battery-dependent, due to the low-power consumption associated with the technology.
The new business addition positions Telit to expand its complete end-to- end IoT solutions
portfolio and address the growing market of battery-powered devices that rely on Wi-Fi and
other low-power technologies. GainSpan products are situated at the intersection of several
emerging segments in IoT such as healthcare, building management, cold-chain logistics, and a
wide range of commercial and industrial application areas. GainSpan’s top-tier customer base
leverage the company’s IP to deliver seamless integration of Wi-Fi with low-power technologies
like BLE and 6LoWPAN for reliable, secure connectivity.
Assets from GainSpan align well with existing Telit products, including cellular, BT/BLE, GNSS
modules; IoT connectivity and platform services, strengthening the company’s “sensor-to- cloud”
solution proposition. The integration of the unique variety of low-power Wi-Fi technology from
GainSpan, with low standby current and fast wake-up time into the Telit portfolio enables
customers to extend the battery life of their devices for years. GainSpan IP also offloads Wi-Fi
services and networking functionality from the application. Customer devices can be designed
with a simple and inexpensive MCU or without one at all.
