Strategic Business Update - Acquisition of Precise-ITC and completion of major milestones for China Product Partnership

LONDON and TORONTO, Dec. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  Alphawave IP (LN:AWE), a global leader in high-speed connectivity for the world’s technology infrastructure, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Precise-ITC and the completion of significant milestones for the China Product Partnership (“CPP”).

Key highlights

• Alphawave IP has agreed to acquire Precise-ITC, Inc., an emerging leader in the Ethernet and Optical Transport Network (OTN) communications connectivity IP space.
  
  
• Alphawave IP has also completed all CPP implementation milestones and CPP, now incorporated as WiseWave Technology Co., Ltd (“WiseWave”), has been funded and will receive its first IP delivery from Alphawave IP in December 2021, as planned. WiseWave was founded as a Chinese semiconductor device company focused on the mainland Chinese market.
  
  
• In addition, Alphawave IP has completed the consolidation of its VeriSilicon reseller relationship with WiseWave to provide one interface to customers in China, in line with the plan communicated at the time of Alphawave IP’s IPO. This consolidation has no material impact on the combined value of the WiseWave and VeriSilicon transactions.
  

Acquisition of Precise-ITC

The acquisition of Precise-ITC will result in the addition of a team of leading engineers focused on delivering a high-performance Ethernet and OTN communications controller IP portfolio. This will provide Alphawave’s customers with an integrated IP bundle of Alphawave IP and Precise-ITC technology that extends Alphawave IP’s leadership in the networking and data center markets. The combined Alphawave IP and Precise-ITC IP solutions have already been integrated and fabricated in silicon products for several of Alphawave IP’s Product IP customers. The acquisition is Alphawave IP’s first such transaction since the completion of its IPO in May 2021.

The cash consideration payable by Alphawave IP is up to US$25m based on achievement of certain performance milestones, plus customary stock-based retention incentives for the Precise-ITC team. The transaction is expected to close in January 2022 and will contribute revenue in 2022.

Tony Pialis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alphawave IP stated: “At our IPO we discussed team and technology acquisition opportunities to further accelerate our growth and we are pleased to announce our first acquisition. Precise-ITC has been a great partner of Alphawave IP since 2019. They have built a high-end and profitable business with an international customer base. Now as one team, we will have an expanded and vertically integrated portfolio of communications IPs to service the most advanced global customers in the networking and data center space. These customers include leading semiconductor companies and hyperscalers¹ that demand high performance connectivity solutions in 4nm, 3nm and beyond.”

Silas Li, Founder and President of Precise-ITC stated: “Our entire team is excited about the opportunity to join the Alphawave IP team and grow our business by leveraging the resources and technology of Alphawave IP. We have worked together since 2019 and our individual pipelines for Q4 2021 and 2022 are strong. By combining our capabilities, we will be able to accelerate both of our businesses and expand our pipeline even further.”

CPP update

Alphawave IP is also pleased to announce the completion of major implementation milestones for CPP, which is now incorporated as WiseWave Technology Co., Ltd. WiseWave has been funded by both Alphawave IP and Beijing Wise Road Asset Management Co., Ltd (“Wise Road”) and is operational, with WiseWave’s team now established in China. WiseWave will receive its first deliveries of Alphawave IPs in December and will immediately begin development of its first communications semiconductor products.

In addition, as set out in Alphawave’s IPO Prospectus, and as approved by VeriSilicon shareholders in Q4 2021, through execution of the VAR Variation Agreement ("VARVA"), Alphawave IP, VeriSilicon and WiseWave have agreed to consolidate all Alphawave IP reselling activities and product development activities within WiseWave. This will provide a single interface for Alphawave IP in China while still supporting the successful multi-year partnership with VeriSilicon, which has already delivered several additional licenses as announced in Alphawave’s Q3 2021 trading update. Execution of the VARVA has no material impact on the combined value of the WiseWave and VeriSilicon transactions, and these bookings are expected to be recognised as revenue over the coming years as contractual milestones are met. Alphawave IP expects to recognise its first revenues from WiseWave and VeriSilicon in H2 2021.  

John Lofton Holt, Executive Chairman of Alphawave IP stated: “We are pleased to have worked successfully with the Wise Road and WiseWave teams to execute against these important operational milestones. WiseWave has built a world-class team and we look forward to supporting this team as it builds its first communications semiconductor products with our IPs in 2022 and 2023.”

About Alphawave IP Group plc (LSE:AWE)
Faced with the exponential growth of data, Alphawave IP’s technology services a critical need: enabling data to travel faster, more reliably and with higher performance at lower power. Alphawave IP is a global leader in high-speed connectivity for the world’s technology infrastructure. Our IP solutions meet the needs of global tier-one customers in data centers, compute, networking, AI, 5G, autonomous vehicles, and storage. Founded in Toronto, Canada in 2017, by an expert technical team with a proven track record in licensing semiconductor IP, our mission is to focus on the hardest-to-solve connectivity challenges. To find out more about Alphawave IP, visit: awaveip.com

Related Party Disclosures
Precise-ITC is not a related party of Alphawave IP. All related parties in this press release have been previously disclosed.

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¹ Hyperscalers are technology companies that provide cloud, networking and internet services at scale. Examples of hyperscalers include Google, Facebook, Alibaba, Microsoft, and Amazon