Gemalto, known for its SIM cards, intends to acquire Wavecom for roughly $136 million.
“The combination will expand Gemalto’s business in the growing machine-to-machine (M2M) market and is a natural extension to Gemalto’s core business,” the company said in a statement today.
Wire reports this morning showed that Gemalto’s stock fell sharply, even though Gemalto detailed its reasons for the deal in slides here and in a conference call.
Wavecom took a circuitous route to today’s announcement. The company exited the handset business in 2004, acquired networking software in 2006 and then acquired another M2M company earlier this year.
Both companies are based in France, so the deal is subject to approval by AMF regulators.