Qualcomm Seeks NXP Acquisition

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Don Clark, Chip Deal Would Shift Qualcomm; An NXP deal would diversify Qualcomm's chip business beyond handsets. Wall Street Journal, Oct 1, 2016.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/with ... ew-risks-1475263943

Quote:

"the San Diego-based company [Qualcomm] is in talks to acquire chip manufacturer NXP Semiconductors NV [name from Next eXPerience; spin off from Philips in 2006] in a strategy shift * * * Capturing Netherlands-based NXP likely will cost more than $30 billion, and lead to owning seven factories in five countries that turn silicon wafers into chips. Besides those plants, known as fabs, NXP operates seven facilities that package and test chips before they are sold.

"NXP, which became a bigger manufacturer through the purchase last year of Freescale Semiconductor [spun off from Motorola in 2004], churns out more than half of its vast line of products from those factories. It is the No 1 supplier of automotive chips, a fast-growing market. Analysts believe the potential to supply its chips for self-driving cars is a major motivation for Qualcomm to pursue deal talks first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday [Sept 28].

"Mature plants like NXP's are maintained throughout the industry to produce some kinds of chips, particularly those that use analog rather than digital technology for applications such as radio. Dan Hutcheson, an analyst at VLSI Research Inc, said NXP's fabs are highly profitable, in part because their production gear was written off years ago.