The largest company involved in the market for embedded Linux operating systems, tools, and professional services has acquired a Romanian device software services provider for $1.4 million. Wind River said Comsys employs 52, and has domain expertise telecom, mobile, and aerospace and defense.

Comsys was founded in 2000 by Galati University computer science professors Cristina Segal and Luminita Dumitriu. It continues to work closely with the University, which it uses as a “workforce pool,” it said.

Comsys began working with Wind River's proprietary VxWorks RTOS in 2001, when it built a CLI (command-line interface) for several devices marketed by ONEAccess, a French TEM (telecommunications equipment manufacturer). In 2004, just as Wind River began to embrace Linux, Comsys began partnering with Wind River on “joint engagements” with companies such as Palm, IBM, and EADS, Wind River said.

Wind River said Comsys's Romanian Development Center will focus initially on four projects:

• Wind River Linux, with an emphasis on automotive (story)
• Wind River VxWorks Platforms, with an emphasis on networking
• Test and verification for existing aerospace and defense projects
• EMEA customer engagements

Under the terms of the agreement, Wind River will pay up to US$1.4 million to acquire all outstanding shares of Comsys. Wind River does not expect the deal to have a significant effect on earnings per share for the fiscal year, it said.

Wind River CEO Ken Klein stated, “In our three years of working with Comsys, it became very apparent that Wind River and Comsys are highly compatible organizations. This acquisition will not only enable Wind River to expand its presence in EMEA, but also will give us access to some of the most experienced device software engineers in the world.”

Wind River's other recent acquisitions include secure TCP/IP stack vendor Interpeak and patented real-time Linux technology from FSMLabs. Competitor MontaVista earlier this year acquired a pair of U.K.-based embedded service providers, while Enea, a competitor focused solely on the telecom software market, earlier acquired QiValue, a Swedish service provider specializing in embedded Linux.

 
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