NXP to Transfer its Mobile Services Business to Gemalto

NXP Semiconductor has announced that it is selling its mobile services business to smartcard vendor, Gemalto for an undisclosed amount. The related unit based in France will continue to develop and market software and service solutions compliant with the MIFARE4Mobile interface specifications which manage MIFARE-based applications in Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile devices.

Commenting on the transaction, Olivier Piou, CEO of Gemalto noted "We believe that transportation will be a favorite application for NFC phones and will help spur adoption of the technology. MIFARE is the reference in contactless transportation and we welcome this opportunity to add MIFARE capability to our Trusted Service Manager services platform".

Adding this MIFARE4Mobile software is expected to boost Gemalto's Trusted Service Manager (TSM) platform offer linking transport operators, banks and mobile phone operators enabling the mobile phone to be used with existing payment and contactless ticketing infrastructure.

"The agreement demonstrates the importance of the MIFARE technology in contactless applications and is a major step to large scale deployments of NFC based services", said Rick Clemmer, Chief Executive Officer of NXP Semiconductors. "As the co-inventor and leader in NFC technology, NXP continues to shape the NFC ecosystem with key industry partners by further evolving the MIFARE technology on NFC devices."

NXP will continue to invest in the development of NFC chips fully compliant with current standards and interoperable with existing contactless infrastructure.

The specifications of the MIFARE4Mobile interface and the associated intellectual property will remain in the ownership of NXP. The firm will also have a central role in evolving the MIFARE4Mobile interface specifications.

Posted to the site on 6th March 2009