Qualcomm has acquired San Diego-based SoftMax. SoftMax brings leading-edge, multi-microphone noise suppression and echo cancellation expertise to Qualcomm, broadening the audio and voice capabilities of the Company's product portfolio for integration into devices such as mobile handsets, Bluetooth headsets, VoIP phones and notebook PCs.

SoftMax's leading-edge voice algorithms for signal separation, echo cancellation and signal processing have enabled some of the latest wireless devices on the market to separate a speaker's voice from various background noises. The result is a dramatic improvement in voice quality, providing significant differentiation for the end product. These technology benefits have led to several key partnerships and implementations with industry-leading handset and Bluetooth headset OEMs using dual-microphone designs. SoftMax's technology also delivers a number of additional advantages, including lower power consumption, easy implementation and minimal processing power and memory requirements.