NVIDIA Corporation today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MediaQ, a leading provider of graphics and multimedia technology for wireless mobile devices.

Under the terms of the agreement, NVIDIA will acquire privately-held MediaQ for $70 million in total consideration, which NVIDIA expects to pay predominantly in cash. The acquisition, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of NVIDIA’s fiscal year 2004, has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is subject to the satisfaction of regulatory requirements and other customary closing conditions.

Founded in 1997, MediaQ’s core technologies enhance visual display capabilities, improve connectivity, and minimize chip and system-level power consumption. The company enhances its semiconductor product offerings with a comprehensive set of software, including drivers for major mobile operating systems (Microsoft PocketPC, Microsoft SmartPhone, Palm, Symbian) and APIs that improve OEM time to market. Key market segments are 3G and 2.5G handsets, PDAs, LCD displays, and other mobile devices. MediaQ customers include leading handset and PDA manufacturers, such as Mitsubishi, Siemens, DBTel, Dell, HP, Palm, Philips, Sharp, and Sony.

This is the first acquisition performed by NVIDIA in order to grab some new technologies. Earlier the company either hired qualified specialists to develop certain hardware, or developed its chips using its existing specialists. The acquisition of MediaQ by NVIDIA may ignite a fierce-competition in the market of 3D-enabled handheld devices later.

More details will be provided during NVIDIA's quarterly conference call to be held on August 7, 2003.