News

"Grey Cell" goes to the head of Laird - Bluetooth pioneer acquired

Nobody made much of a fuss about the announcement that Laird group bought Ezurio. You'd never guess that it was the renaissance of one of the UK's pioneering Bluetooth technology companies.

The takeover could signal the serious presence of British Bluetooth in the automotive industry, as well as in telematics - beyond existing electronics industry componentry.

The company originally started out as Grey Cell, and in 1998, was merged with TDK. It was a marriage with "perfect match" written all over it.

TDK, at that time, had pots of money from making audio cassette tapes and diskettes and other magnetic technology, and few new ideas. Grey Cell had ideas coming out of its ears, but was desperately short of money. Bluetooth looked like the way to give TDK a future.

In the end, TDK had to let the wireless company go, as its market crashed around its ears: a management buyout created Ezurio, funded by 3i investments.

Now, after years looking for a partner that knows the wireless business, Ezurio has found Laird (or maybe, the other way round) and as a result, we can expect several technology ideas to appear from the labs - ideas that Ezurio couldn't raise finance for before.

The parent's technology side is about as unlikely a development as Nokia's - Nokia was a paper mill and forestry company before it got into displays, and then phones. Laird, by contrast, built ships on the Clyde.

Synergy may be possible, say our sources, in antennas, telematics, automotive, and M2M comms.

Official press release reproduced here

Laird technology web site here