Broadcom, Qualcomm Groked

Rick Merritt, SiliconValley Bureau Chief, EETimes.
11/4/2017 02:41 PM EDT

What would Hock Tan do with Qualcomm - and maybe even NXP - if the acquisition-prone CEO could gobble them both. Here are some thoughts.

I’m heading to Yosemite for a long weekend Saturday. When I return to San Jose there’s an outside chance the semiconductor landscape would not look the same.

The still-new Broadcom may strike a deal this weekend to acquire Qualcomm according to Reuters which cites three sources and the Wall Street Journal which cites one. There are plenty of good reasons why this may never happen, but for the sake of argument let’s say it does.

The first thing Hock Tan would do is put up for sale Qualcomm Technology Licensing, owner of the largest patent portfolio in wireless. That would not help recoup some the estimated $100 billion costs of the deal and could effectively end a slew of patent infringement cases with Apple as well as antitrust actions around the planet.

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