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Inside Secure is confident it will be able to announce a design win for an Android NFC phone before the end of the year, according to Rémy de Tonnac, CEO of the struggling No. 2 NFC chip maker.

The top NFC executive at struggling chip maker Inside Secure, Charlie Walton, has left the company after seven years to become CEO of Canada-based SecureKey Technologies.

Despite efforts to diversify its customer base for its NFC chips, France-based Inside Secure will rely on sales to BlackBerry maker Research In Motion for the bulk of its revenue in 2012 and for its goal to become profitable by the end of the year.

Inside Secure today announced it has raised €69 million (US$90 million) in its initial public offering, pricing its shares at €8.30 ($10.82) apiece.

France-based NFC chip supplier Inside Secure has relaunched its initial public offering, planning to raise up the €79 million (US$103.4 million), as it seeks to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded NFC market.

Infineon Technologies said it shipped at least 10 million embedded secure chips during both the third and fourth quarters of 2011 and predicts it will continue to sell “double-digit millions” of embedded chips each quarter after that.

U.S.-based chip maker Broadcom is developing a standalone NFC chip, which it could introduce before the end of the year, NFC Times has learned.

NXP Semiconductors' sharply lower forecast for NFC phone shipments for 2011 comes as little surprise to many, who point to delays in handset shipments and failure by many mobile operators to firm up their NFC business plans.

Inside Secure CEO Rémy de Tonnac said the chip supplier’s decision to postpone its planned initial public offering was based solely on the financial crisis in Greece and the uncertainty it is creating on world markets.

Inside Contactless today announced it has agreed to purchase U.S.-based Atmel Corp.’s smart card chip unit for an undisclosed price–a move that is expected to triple Inside’s sales and give it much-needed technology to stay competitive with its larger European rivals.