Nvidia licenses Transmeta power management tech

Sunnyvale (CA) – It appears that Transmeta has found a successful business model : The company has added Nvidia to its group of Longrun and Longrun 2 licensees suggesting that it is not going to disappear anytime soon.

According to Transmeta, Nvidia has been granted a “non-exclusive license to Transmeta’s Longrun and Longrun 2 technologies and other intellectual property”. Nvidia paid a “one-time, non-refundable license fee of $25 million”.

Transitioning from being a processor manufacturer to a more nimble IP company is showing positive impact on the company’s balance sheet. Transmeta said it recorded $366,000 in licensing revenue during the second quarter of the year, up from $240,000 in the first quarter. Transmeta has phased out all services and end-of-life product revenue sources.

Total operating expenses are in the $1.9 million per quarter range – a number that the company can almost cover by interest income ($1.8 million) delivered by the windfall the company got from Intel through a settlement last year.

Transmeta currently has $141.8 million in the bank and enough room to grow its business. There is no doubt in our mind that Transmeta is one of the big (but not so visible) success stories of this year.