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D&M Holdings Sells Rio MP3 Technology to SigmaTel

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 27, 2005 - 7:37am.
Tokyo -- Japanese consumer electronics maker D&M Holdings announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to sell the technology assets of its Rio MP3 player manufacturing division to SigmaTel, which makes chips used in some of Rio's portable digital audio players. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Under the deal, Texas-based SigmaTel will hire most of Rio's engineering team, while Rio will retain a license for the MP3 technology sold to SigmaTel. In addition to Rio, Tokyo-based D&M Holdings also owns the Denon, Marantz, ReplayTV and Escient brands. D&M previously announced that it was examining strategic options for its money-losing Rio unit, and said today that it is still examining a possible sale of the company. SigmaTel said that although it will not acquire ownership rights to the Rio brand or inventory, it will gain some 15 MP3-related patents in the transaction. D&M purchased Rio -- one of the first MP3 player makers -- along with ReplayTV from Sonicblue in 2003 for $36 million.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050726/266011.html
http://www.dm-holdings.com
http://www.sigmatel.com

tags: D&M Holdings | Rio MP3 Technology | SigmaTel | Sells |



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