In a major IP market move TechInsights and Chipworks announce that they are joining forces
Canadian technology analysis and reverse engineering businesses TechInsights and Chipworks have announced that they are to merge. They will trade under the TechInsights name and senior members of the two entities will come together to form a joint management board.
The news came in a letter sent to both firms’ clients and friends this morning from TechInsights CEO John Day:
We shall be in touch, shortly, to talk though the benefits of the combination and this letter sets out the highpoints:
The new company will operate as TechInsights.
The combination has involved a pooling of ownership interest of the two companies : former TechInsights and Chipworks owners will own part of the new, combined, TechInsights
The management of TechInsights, going forward, will include representatives of both the TechInsights and Chipworks management teams
Although now under common ownership the two companies will continue to operate separately – this is to ensure that matters of client conflict and confidentiality are respected. The combination makes the new TechInsights the leading provider of advanced technology analysis and of technology patent advice.
The most comprehensive library of detailed technical analysis of today’s and historical electronics
An advanced reverse engineering and analysis laboratories, equipped with sophisticated instruments and manned by skilled technicians who image and test devices using proprietary techniques
A team of several hundred engineers, experts in multiple technology disciplines and in patent licensing best practices, who explain how electronic devices work and how patented inventions are used in their design and manufacture.
The combination creates a robust new business with the scale and resource to advance technology analysis to new levels: we anticipate substantially increasing the breadth and depth of technology analysis that we generate, adding this to an already substantial combined library. This, in turn, will enable us to broaden our offer to our clients providing a comprehensive, ‘help yourself’, technology analysis reference resource which will bring value to our clients for multiple use cases relevant to our clients’ core business strategy development and execution workflows.
We look forward to talking to you about an exciting future, during the coming weeks and months. Please do not hesitate to contact me or your regular contact person, with any questions you have about this development.
Following significant changes to the IP market, which have effectively made enforcement and monetisation much more challenging propositions, there has been much talk of retrenchment. Mostly, though, this has focused on NPEs and PIPCOs. But, in reality, what we have seen over recent times is a number of mergers and acquisitions among service providers and intermediaries, while others have quietly disappeared. It stands to reason that with less litigation, fewer licensing deals and reduced numbers of acquisitions, the hinterland that has grown up around the market is going to feel the strain. The TechInsights and Chipworks move may be the most prominent manifestation of this so far.
That said, it is clearly a coming together that makes sense. Both firms have stellar technical and engineering expertise, combined with deep knowledge of the IP dealmaking environment across the world. Off the top of my head I can think of a dozen TechInsights and Chipworks people whose experience and insight are up there with the very best. Combined, they will be formidable. Instead of chasing each other to maintain clients and find new ones, they will instead have a very exciting joint proposition to put in front of customers in North America and Asia, where both do a lot of work already. It will also leave them in a good position to make the most of what could happen next in Europe, should the UK vote to stay in the EU and the UPC get off the ground.