Snippets: Prelude puts SiConnect into liquidation; CSR, Motorola to set up industry forum on open enhanced GPS
Prelude Trust plc, which invests in high growth tech companies, said that Administrators have been appointed to SiConnect Ltd, a semiconductor company that has developed products for the Powerline Communications market.
Trust managers DFJ Esprit (formerly Esprit Capital Partners) have been seeking a merger partner or acquirer for the business. Investment bankers were appointed to lead the process however, despite a number of meetings with potential buyers, no offers were received and with no further investment funds available to the company, its directors decided to place the company in administration.
Prelude invested £3.8m in SiConnect, but had already accounted for the possibility of administration in its latest financial reporting statement.
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TeraView, specialist in terahertz solutions and technology for the pharmaceutical and life science industry, said it has conducted successful proof of principle for high speed measurements of coating thickness on tablets applicable to on-line tablet inspection.
The non-contact, non-destructive technique may also be extended to on-line measurement of other key product attributes, such as coating or core density tablets delamination and many other parameters characterising the performance of drugs which TeraView has identified with its products and collaborators.
In previous studies with its pharmaceutical customers, TeraView has demonstrated its terahertz products and solutions can help to accelerate drug development and design of new formulations, improve product quality and maintain in-specification product to minimise the risk of regulatory non-compliance.
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Product design and development consultancy 42 Technology appointed Richard Archer, founder and former CEO of The Automation Partnership, to its Board.
Mr Archer has more than 30 years’ pharmaceutical industry experience and will be instrumental in helping build 42T’s profile and sales in the life sciences market. He has helped many of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies to achieve new levels of operating efficiency by automating their R&D and manufacturing processes, and he pioneered an industrialised ‘drug discovery factory’ approach in the search for potential new medicines.
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CSR and Motorola said they intend to create an open industry forum to evaluate and foster enhanced Global Positioning System (EGPS) technologies. When used on a mobile device, EGPS technologies augment GPS to provide position information in demanding environments. The EGPS Forum is expected to advocate improvement to location technologies in mobile devices and is committed to meeting consumer and regulatory needs for precise and consistent levels of location information.
Current commercialised location technologies meet the basic needs of consumers and minimum regulatory requirements for widespread use in mobile phones – however, high value commercial services require location technologies that provide prompt, consistent and reliable position information, even indoors, within the limited power budget of a portable device. Emergency services also require accurate indoor positioning. The intended goal of the EGPS Forum will be to ensure that technologies which enhance GPS are put in place to meet these advanced requirements.
The EGPS Forum will be open to a broad array of participants from the telecommunications industry including handset manufacturers, location technology companies, network infrastructure providers and mobile network carriers. Initial activities of the Forum will focus on evaluating hybrid technologies that enhance GPS by combining satellite measurements with timing measurements taken from cellular networks and on establishing the underlying infrastructure to ensure full interoperability of this technology.
28 January 2008
