American technology business NVIDIA has made a UK purchase with the acquisition of Bristol-based tech company Icera.

American technology business NVIDIA has made a UK purchase with the acquisition of Bristol-based tech company Icera.

The $367 million (£224.2 million) cash deal brings to NVIDIA a business which produces chips for 3G and 4G mobile phones.

Since Icera was founded in 2002 by Stan Boland, Steve Allpress and Simon Knowles, the company has secured $260 million in venture capital funding to aid its growth.

The deal marks a departure from California-headquartered NVIDIA’s traditional offering of graphics cards for PC games.

President and CEO of NVIDIA, Jen-Hsun Huang, says that the Icera technology acquired through the deal will give NVIDIA an ‘outstanding platform’ to support the industry’s best phones and tablets.

Huang adds: ‘Icera is a perfect fit for NVIDIA. Our businesses are complementary. Their nimble, entrepreneurial, engineering-focused culture mirrors our own.’

Stan Boland, president and CEO of Icera, comments: ‘NVIDIA’s Tegra processor has the most impressive roadmap in the industry, and it is an ideal match for Icera. As part of NVIDIA, we will be able to reach a broader market.

‘Our team has collaborated closely with NVIDIA for several years on a range of projects, and we’re delighted to be joining forces.’

The high-speed wireless-modem products manufactured by Icera are approved by 50 carriers across the globe.

The buy comes after an April collaboration between UK company Playbox and NVIDIA. The partnership will see Playbox develop games for NVIDIA Tegra-powered phones and tablets in the Android market.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, Android tablets, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet, achieved a 22 per cent share of the global tablet market.

The figures from UK-based Strategy Analytics showed a reduction in Apple tablet sales from 95 per cent to 75 per cent.

The rise in figures equated to a 2000 per cent sequential growth in Android tablet volumes.