Nvidia to pull plug on LTE modem business

Four years following its acquisition of LTE modem-maker Icera, Nvidia has announced that it is to wind down LTE modem operations during the second quarter of fiscal 2016.

According to Nvidia, the company has "reshaped its strategy to focus on high-growth opportunities in gaming, automotive and cloud computing applications" since buying Icera in 2011 for $367 million. It has now said that it "is open to a sale of the technology or operations."

Back in 2011, Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive of Nvidia, called the Icera acquisition "a key step in Nvidia's plans to be a major player in the mobile computing revolution."

Nvidia will continue to use Icera LTE modems in products "for the next year or more," but beyond that it "expects to partner with third-party modem suppliers."

Icera currently employs about 500 people, with most of them located in the UK and France, with smaller operations based in Asia and the US.

Nvidia plans to release further details relating to Icera when it announces its first-quarter 2015 financial results this Thursday.

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