Company:U-blox

From HandWiki
u-blox Holding AG
TypePublic company
SIXUBXN
IndustrySemiconductors, Internet of Things (IoT)
Founded1997
Headquarters
Thalwil, canton of Zürich, Switzerland
Key people
  • Stephan Zizala (CEO)
  • André Müller (Chairman)
RevenueIncrease SFr 624 million (2021)[1]
Increase SFr 121.8 million (2021)[1]
Increase SFr 101.8 million (2021)[1]
Number of employees
1,300 (2023)[2]
Websitewww.u-blox.com

u-blox is a Swiss company that creates wireless semiconductors and modules for consumer, automotive and industrial markets. They operate as a fabless IC and design house. The company is listed at the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX:UBXN) and has offices in the US, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, Australia, Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Italy and Greece.

History

u-blox is a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH)[3][4] and was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Thalwil, Switzerland. Thomas Seiler served as chief executive officer of u-blox AG from 2002 until his retirement on Dec 31, 2022. Stephan Zizala, who joined the company in 2022, succeeded Seiler.[5]

In 2016, u-blox opened a new office in Taipei, Taiwan.[6]

Products and technology

u-blox provides starter kits which allow quick prototyping of variety of applications for the Internet of Things.[7] It develops and sells chips and modules that support global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), including receivers for GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou and QZSS.[8] The wireless range consists of GSM-, UMTS- and CDMA2000 and LTE modules, as well as Bluetooth- and WiFi-modules. All these products enable the delivery of complete systems for location-based services and M2M applications (machine-to-machine communication) in the Internet of Things, that rely on the convergence of 2G/3G/4G, Bluetooth-, Wi-Fi technology and satellite navigation.[9] A collaboration to create GNSS receiver that work globally was started between u-blox, SoftBank and ALES in 2021.[10] One year later, in 2022, u-blox released the at the time smallest LTE Cat 4 Module LARA-L6.[11]

Acquisitions

They acquired a dozen companies after their IPO in 2007, after acquiring connectblue[12] in 2014 and Lesswire in 2015 [13] they acquired Rigado's module business in 2019.[14] In 2020, u-blox acquired Thingstream.[15] In 2021, u-blox AG acquired Sapcorda Services GmbH, a provider of high precision GNSS (global navigation satellite system) services.[16] and Naventik GmbH, a German company specializing in the development of safe positioning solutions for autonomous driving.[17]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "u-blox Annual Report 2022". https://report2022.u-blox.com/. 
  2. "Key figures". https://www.u-blox.com/en/investor-relations. 
  3. Jain, Sakshi (2023-06-13). "The core idea behind u-blox has always been to explore new business opportunities using module-based solutions with third-party chips- Andreas Thiel" (in en-US). https://www.eletimes.com/the-core-idea-behind-u-blox-has-always-been-to-explore-new-business-opportunities-using-module-based-solutions-with-third-party-chips-andreas-thiel. 
  4. "Well positioned with GPS technology". https://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/071221-ublox/index_EN.html. 
  5. "u-blox announces CEO transition effective 1 January 2023". 24 May 2022. https://www.u-blox.com/en/u-blox-announces-ceo-transition-effective-1-january-2023. 
  6. "u-blox Taiwan expands into new Taipei offices". 2016-05-18. https://www.iot-now.com/2016/05/18/47471-u-blox-taiwan-expands-into-new-taipei-offices/. 
  7. "u-blox C027 | Mbed". https://os.mbed.com/platforms/u-blox-C027/. 
  8. "Chinese car maker chose u-blox GNSS receiver". electronicsweekly.com. 2021-01-14. https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/chinese-car-maker-chooses-u-blox-gnss-receiver-2021-01/. 
  9. "U-blox Sharpens Focus on Connected Car Market". insideunmannedsystems.com. 2015-12-09. https://insideunmannedsystems.com/u-blox-sharpens-focus-on-connected-car-market/. 
  10. "SoftBank Corp. and u-blox to Collaborate on Global GNSS Augmentation Services". insidegnss.com. 2021-11-19. https://insidegnss.com/softbank-corp-and-u%E2%80%91blox-to-collaborate-on-global-gnss-augmentation-services/. 
  11. "Smallest LTE Cat 4 Module with Global Coverage and 2G/3G Fallback". nasdaq.com. 2022-05-24. https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/u-blox-ag:-u-blox-launches-worlds-smallest-lte-cat-4-module-with-global-coverage-and. 
  12. "u-blox acquires connectBlue; adds Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity". http://www.connectblue.com/fileadmin/Connectblue/Web2006/Documents/Press_releases/PRESS_RELEASE_connectBlue_u-blox.pdf. 
  13. "u-blox acquires automotive short range modules business from Lesswire" (in en-US). 2014-12-02. https://www.u-blox.com/en/investor-press-releases/u-blox-acquires-automotive-short-range-modules-business-lesswire. 
  14. u-blox acquired Rigado's Bluetooth Modules Business
  15. "Thingstream acquired by u-blox". April 2020. https://www.u-blox.com/en/investor-press-releases/u-blox-acquires-iot-communication-service-provider-thingstream. 
  16. "u-blox acquires full ownership in Sapcorda Joint Venture". 18 March 2021. https://www.u-blox.com/en/investor-press-releases/u-blox-acquires-full-ownership-in-sapcorda-joint-venture. 
  17. "u-blox and Naventik". https://www.itsax.de/partner_profil/naventik/naventik-gmbh-acquired-by-u-blox-in-chemnitz. 

External links