Tessera to Cease All Remaining mems|cam Manufacturing Operations

Business Wire: Tessera is restructuring its DigitalOptics business (DOC) to cease its remaining manufacturing operations and refocus on monetizing DOC technologies, including solutions for imaging and MEMS technologies. These actions are the culmination of an in-depth review of strategic alternatives for DOC that was conducted in conjunction with the Company’s financial advisors, the newly reconstituted board of directors and the new senior management team. As a result of the restructuring, the Company expects its quarterly DOC related operating expenses to be reduced by approximately $17 million, realized in full by the third quarter of 2014.

Tom Lacey, Tessera’s CEO, commented, "After an exhaustive process of exploring multiple options, we have decided to cease DOC manufacturing operations and focus our resources in DOC on continuing to operate our image enhancement business, while also exploring new ways to realize value from our extensive DOC intellectual property portfolio, including a sale, licensing or other means. While the strategic process ultimately did not lead to a sale of the mems|cam business, we achieved solid proof of concept by demonstrating working mems|cam camera modules, including shipping pre-production units that generated substantial customer interest. We strongly believe that there is significant value in the related intellectual property that has been developed, including our camera module, MEMS, and image enhancement technologies. Additionally, we continue to believe our mems|cam technology is unique and novel and may be incorporated into mobile devices in the future. To that end, we intend to maintain a small team of MEMS engineers to further the mems|cam technology and pursue possible avenues to unlock the value of this powerful technology."

Thanks to SF and SC for sending me the news!