U.K. chipmaker Imagination Technologies Group Plc (LON: IMG.L), which licenses and sells its designs to Intel and Apple, said interim pretax profits doubled on strong revenue growth from both licensing and royalties. The company said partner chips shipped almost doubled to 107 million units.

The tech company, which also deploys its chip designs in its own-brand of PURE digital radios, said the continued strong volume ramp of devices and active licensing engagements have again resulted in record half-year revenues and profits.

For the six months ended October 31, the company reported pretax profit of 7.7 million pounds from 3.9 million pounds in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose 16 percent to 44 million pounds ($70 million) as technology revenue surged 48 percent on higher royalty and licensing revenue.

Revenues from PURE digital radios - which is currently loss making - fell 22 percent to 13.8 million pounds from 17.8 million pounds.

The FTSE-250 member said PURE is expected to see improvement over medium term, despite some short-term slow-down driven by the consumer spending and timing of some new products.

Despite the volatile macro economy, the Group remains well placed for further solid growth based on its active licensing pipeline, expected chip volume ramp and royalty growth, as well as the potential for PURE to exploit its strong product line-up and develop its new sales territories, said chief executive Hossein Yassaie.

Separately, the Group said it has agreed to acquire Caustic Graphics Inc., a developer of real-time interactive ray tracing graphics technology, for $27 million in cash.

The group had last month acquired US-based HelloSoft for up to $47 million to expand its presence into video and VoIP as well as boost its WiFi offering.

Shares of the company, which has a market capitalisation of just under 1 billion pounds, are trading 1.5 percent higher at 365 pence in early trade Tuesday on the London Stock Exchange.

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