Achieves milestone of 10 million chips shipped
LONDON -- (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Sequans Communications S.A. (NYSE: SQNS) raised $77 million by offering 7.7 million ADSs at $10 at its 15 April 2011 IPO, with a market capitalisation of $365 million. Sequans is the first French company to list on NYSE since 2002, and to celebrate this achievement, the company was invited by NYSE Euronext to ring the opening bell in Paris today.
At the opening bell ceremony, Sequans founder and CEO Georges Karam announced that the company has achieved 10 million chips shipped. This is significant growth for the company, which shipped 1 million chips per year in 2009, 1 million chips per quarter in 2010, and ramped up to 1 million chips per month this year.
Karam noted that his vision for Sequans is to become a $1 billion market capitalisation company, with growth coming from significant market traction in 4G networks in developed countries like the US and Japan, as well as developing markets like China and India.
Venture Capital firm Add Partners, based in London, remains the largest shareholder in Sequans, having led a €7 million financing of the business in February 2005 when the company was still pre-revenue. Add Partners was instrumental in assisting the company to build its operations team based in Singapore - a move which has enabled Sequans to scale its manufacturing to the current 1 million chips per month run rate. The company has since become a global leader in 4G, offering semiconductor solutions for WIMAX and LTE networks.
"Congratulations to the entire Sequans team, who have demonstrated excellent executional ability under George Karam's leadership," says David Ong, investment director, Add Partners. "They have proved without a doubt one of the most exceptional teams in Europe today."
Based in Paris, Sequans is a leading fabless designer, developer and supplier of 4G semiconductor solutions for wireless broadband applications. Its single chip integrated and low power products provide 4G connectivity for devices with multiple form factors ranging from CPEs to smartphones and tablets. Sequans provides 4G chips to HTC's EVO 4G and EVO Shift smartphones.
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