The ATML Period
It was formed in June 1993 as Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd, a company incorporated in the UK, as a spin-off from Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge. The founders included by Dr Hermann Hauser and Professor Andy Hopper. ATML was a manufacturer of ATM products and a player in the "ATM to the desktop" market.
In September 1997, due to slow uptake in the ATM systems business, the company opted for a new business strategy focusing on semiconductor design and licensing. There was a substantial headcount reduction at that time.
In February 1998, the Company changed its name to Virata Limited. The choice of name derived from a product family name used by ATML, but it was also derived from an Italian verb meaning "to change course" as used in the nautical context of "tacking" - making progress against a prevailing headwind.
Financial backing for the ATML and Virata Ltd business came in the form of five rounds of VC funding, raising a total of $71 million. An IPO and Secondary Offering would come later.
In July 1998, Virata acquired RSA Communications, a company based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The company description circa 1999 was: "Virata delivers highly-integrated semiconductors and communications software to Internet access equipment suppliers targeting DSL and broadband wireless devices. Virata's systems expertise, products and support services simplify development; maximize opportunity for differentiation and speed time-to-market."
A typical product is the Helium 210-80 launched in August 2001.
Read more about this topic: Virata Corporation
Famous quotes containing the word period:
“When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)