It seems like Sony’s Home Automation vision which was displayed at CES isn’t just a one off thing and that there is a far grander vision at work.

 Altair employs 190 engineers and software developers at their Israeli headquarters where they develop 4G chips to speed up communications without using excess energy. They work with several communications protocols like LTE, XG-PHS and WiMAX and have customers like Verizon Wireless in the U.S. They recently opened a development center in Taiwan. 

Now, those 190 engineers will be under a new payroll with Sony purchasing Altair Semiconductor for $200 million. More after the jump.

Izumi Kawanishi, EVP, Product Business Group, Sony Mobile

 Sony Mobile regards the push into the realm of IoT and our strategies for diving into this market are critically important.There can be little doubt that the market for network-connected devices – of every shape, size and type – will explode at breakneck pace going forwards. 

It’s obviously far too early to tell if Sony acquired Altair Semiconductor in order to better boost their own internal connected devices or if like Sony’s image sensor business which is bringing in billions of dollars in revenue, this is part of the company’s strategy at manufacturing more components for other companies which tend to buy in large volumes.

Discuss:

Do you think Sony wants to boost their manufacturing division with this purchase or is this part of a bigger play by Sony Electronics for their own product portfolio?

[Via Geektime]