Pure Radio up for sale

UK-based digital radio brand Pure, which is available in Australia, is up for sale. It comes as its parent microchip-making company Imagination Technologies Group – which is part-owned by Apple – seeks a new CEO and undergoes a radical restructure.

Imagination’s core business is graphics and video chips for smartphones, computer games, and TVs. But it has been hit by a slowdown in royalties from key clients (mostly the slowdown of sales of Apple smartphones) and uncertainty in the Chinese market.

It is restructuring to drop some of its low-sales brands as Pure and the Jongo multi-room audio range. Pure is emphatic that it is “business as usual” for customers.

Imagination says, “The Group believes there are potentially more appropriate owners for Pure, given the economies of scale in the consumer electronics market, who will be able to leverage its leading technologies and brand. Imagination will treat the Pure division as a discontinued operation with immediate effect.”

Its CEO of 18 years, Sir Hossein Yassaie, has stepped down. Iranian-born Yassaie was knighted in 2013 for services to technology. But it was he who lead the company into expanding into new products as Pure and Jongo. In 2012, when Imagination was at its peak, he received a package of £6.4 million (A$13.10 million). Last year it was down to £835,000 ($1.7 million).

He will be replaced in the interim by one time Rolls Royce executive Andrew Heath, who will try to reduce operating costs by £15 million (A$30.73 million) over its next financial year.