Latest reports indicate that Apple has halted development on its own Wi-Fi chip, which was intended to replace the one supplied by Broadcom. The company was hoping to have its own chip ready for the 2025 iPhone 17 lineup, but according to TF International’s Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple has run into issues developing a single component that supports both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity in a single chip. As a result, Broadcom is set to benefit from the iPhone 15’s upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E and the industry-standard upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E/7.

Kuo adds that developing a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo chip is far more challenging than designing a Wi-Fi-only chip. A majority of Apple’s products use Broadcom’s combo chip, which would make it harder for Apple to switch the entirety of Broadcom’s chipsets to its own. On the other hand, Apple is still expected to complete the development of its 5G modem chip, which was intended to replace the Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G modem currently used by the company. However, there have been delays due to “insufficient development resources” and issues with Qualcomm patents. Apple is still expected to eventually use its own 5G modem in future iPhones.

According to Kuo, Apple’s engineering resources are diverted towards the development of its Apple Silicon for TSMC’s 3nm process node. The company hopes to begin mass production of the “world’s most advanced 3nm processors” sometime later this year. This chip is expected to significantly improve performance and energy-efficiency compared to its predecessors, since a lower process node number implies a higher transistor count.

As a result of the slowdown in processor upgrades, Broadcom is set to benefit as the supplier of the new Wi-Fi 6E chips for the iPhone 15 series at a higher average selling price. Meanwhile, Qualcomm, which had expected to see its share of new iPhone models using its modem drop to 20%, is now back at 100% until Apple figures out an effective solution to the 5G modem development snag. This news has been met with positive reactions from both Broadcom and Qualcomm stockholders.

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Despite Wi-Fi 6 and 6E adoption rates still being relatively low in 2022, it seems that Intel, the leading semiconductor tech giant is already wanting to move on to the next generation of broadband internet – WiFi 7.

In their latest YouTube video uploaded on Intel’s Newsroom channel, Intel, in collaboration with Broadcom, is shown to demonstrate that Wi-Fi 7 can achieve speeds of up to over 5 Gbps, at least 5 times faster than the 1 Gbps that Wi-Fi 6 maxes out at, and 25 times faster than the average speed of Wi-Fi 5 which is only 200 Mbps.

The demonstration was done using an Intel-powered laptop that has support for Wi-Fi 7 and using a Broadcom access point router, the 5 Gbps speed achieved was stable and steady throughout the test. Broadcom adds that the value of Wi-Fi 7 goes beyond simple speed increases to deliver greater network capacity, Wi-Fi 7 will also bring along the benefits of much lower latencies. 

“The reduced latencies will be invaluable for immersive experiences over Wi-Fi, with the most obvious applications being online gaming and reduced latency for wireless VR headsets. For media streamers, it also opens up the eye-popping possibility of UHD 16K resolution high fps streaming (or more people on the network streaming 4K or 8K videos),” Broadcom explains.

In their press document for Wi-Fi 7, Intel mentions that the company hopes to deploy and supply Wi-Fi 7 modems in Intel-powered laptops starting in 2024, and the documents also reiterate the 4 main pillars of improvement for the next generation of Wi-Fi.

The 4 key advancements are respectively accelerated connectivity, rock-solid reliability, wired-like responsiveness, and enhanced privacy and security. In detail, Intel promises that Wi-Fi 7 will deliver

1. Greater than 5 Gbps PC Wi-Fi speeds with consistent ultra-low latency – share files in seconds vs minutes.
2. Peace of mind your PC will make and maintain the best Wi-Fi connections simultaneously.
3. No-compromise gaming throughout the home.
4. Trust in your connectivity.

As shown in the comparison table provided by Intel above, Wi-Fi 7 has new specifications standards when compared to previous generations. The new Wi-Fi 7 will feature tri-band operations, under 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz frequencies. The tri-band operations allow for more multi-device connections across Wi-Fi 7 without much interference as compared to single-band operation and dual-band operation. 

The underlying technologies behind Wi-Fi 7 also include wider 320 MHz channels in the unlicensed 6GHz spectrum, higher order 4K QAM data modulation, and the upcoming WPA4 network security encryption standard. For more news on Wi-Fi 7, you can read more on MediaTek’s take on Wi-Fi 7 in our article linked here.

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(Source, Via)

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Chipmakers like Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Broadcom have entered the early stages of development for the next generation of Wi-Fi chips. The next gen standard is for the Wi-Fi 7 chips that will likely feature improvement over the previous generation.

According to a DigiTimes report, the news arrives from industry sources close to the matter. In other words, the chipmaking giants are working on launching their own iterations Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) chips. This upcoming generation of wireless networking cards would be the successors to the Wi-Fi 6 standards and even the Wi-Fi 6 Plus standards as well. As per sources, this includes major firms like Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Broadcom.

All of these companies have known to supply wireless chips to various other OEMs. This includes PC and laptop makers, including Asus, Acer, HP, and others. These chips are also expected to arrive in smartphones, tablets, other products like WiFi routers as well and would likely offer improved wireless data transfer speeds and may even raise the wireless range as well. Unfortunately, this is all the information we have as of right now and we have no finer details regarding this matter. So stay tuned for more updates.

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Broadcom is the supplier of the Wi-Fi 6E chips that is used by Samsung for its high end Galaxy S21 Ultra. The known chipmaker supplies the BCM4389 chips for the premium grade flagship handset.

For those unaware, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the first ever smartphones to support Wi-Fi 6E. As per TheElec report, Wi-Fi 6E adds a 6GHz spectrum to the existing Wi-Fi 6 standards (802.11ax), which allows the former to offer speeds that are up to twice as fast. In other words, Wi-Fi 6E can offer speeds reaching up to 2.4Gbps, which is double that of the 1.2Gbps speeds offered by Wi-Fi 6.

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Furthermore, the Broadcom BCM4389 also combines Wi-Fi 6E with Bluetooth 5.0 architecture as well. The new chip also arrives with up to 1.2Ghz of new Wi-Fi spectrum that can be allocated in the 6GHz band that can support up to seven 160MHz channels, as officially stated by Broadcom. In simpler terms, this translates to faster speeds, which enables improved experience during remote working scenarios, or even online education, remote healthcare, and even during gaming.

Previously, Broadcom had stated that it had supplied the South Korean tech giant with Wi-Fi chips for the Galaxy S10, which was the world’s first smartphone to support Wi-Fi 6 back then. Since then, the company has supplied Wi-Fi 6 chips to over 500 million devices, according to the company. With Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 888 SoC also supporting Wi-Fi 6E, the company can now offer its new chips to other manufacturers as well.

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Apple and Broadcom have joined hands and are trying to overturn the results of their legal battles with Caltech over its WiFi patent trials from back in January 2020. The companies are asking courts to overturn the decision, which has fined both companies over 1.1 billion US Dollars in fines.

A new filing made by the Cupertino based giant and Broadcom earlier this week, has urged the court to overturn the results of the Caltech WiFi patent trials. As per an AppleInsider report, the brief suggests that the original trial was conducted with “”multiple legal errors.” Back in January 2020, the patent trial ruling had found both Apple and Broadcom guilty of infringing on patents owned by the California Institute of Technology for WiFi. Notably, Apple tried to invalidate the patent back in March, but ultimately failed.

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For those unaware, Caltech’s lawyers even argued that a hypothetical licensing deal in 2010 for the chips used in iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and more would have brought in some 1.4 US Dollars per device from Apple and 26 cents each from Broadcom during the trial. When calculated, this figure translates to the jury applying an 838 million US Dollars fine on Apple and 270 million US Dollars on Broadcom.

In the appeal, both companies stated that “These rulings unfairly prejudiced appellants, and greatly hampered their ability to rebut Caltech’s repeated emphasis at trial on the supposed importance of the patents-in-suit, which led to an enormous — and unwarranted — damages award.” Caltech has called both firms conduct as “truly egregious” and even asked the court to raise the payment up to 2.2 billion US Dollars, after taking the lawyers and damages into account.

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Broadcom is apparently going to end the exclusivity deals that it had offered to TV and modem makers for seven years in a deal with EU antitrust regulators. This move arrives after a year long investigation by the European Commission that hasn’t found any wrongdoing on Broadcom’s part.

For those unaware, the European Commission started an investigation against the US based chipmaker in June 2019, and had even threatened to issue an interim order, the first in two decades, to stop such practices during the course of the investigation. Broadcom is a known supplier of Apple and even makes chips for smartphones, computers, and even networking equipment as well.

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According to the EU competition regulator, “Broadcom will suspend all existing agreements containing exclusivity or quasi-exclusivity arrangements and/or leveraging provisions concerning Systems-on-a-Chip (SoCs) for TV set-top boxes and Internet modems, and has committed not to enter into new agreements comprising such terms.” 

As per the Reuters report, the company will not offer price or non price incentives to TV and modem makers to buy a minimum number of its products in Europe. Furthermore, these purchases will also not be related to the sales of other products either. Similarly, Broadcom will also pledge not to offer price or non price incentives to TV and modem makers to buy more than 50 percent of its products or have its sales related to any other products for more than 50 percent of its products globally, excluding China.

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A research agency Tuo Institute of Industrial Research, a subsidiary of Jibang Consulting, has announced the revenue and ranking of the top ten IC design companies in the world in the first quarter of 2020.

The report shows that Qualcomm surpassed Broadcom with a Q1 2020 revenue of $4.1 billion to return to the number one position. The revenue represents an increase of 10.2% over the same period last year. The report says Qualcomm benefited from the success of the 5G product strategy and the sharp increase in the demand for remote office and teaching caused by the epidemic.

Broadcom is in the second position with a gross revenue of US$4.08 billion. The US semiconductor giant’s revenue was down 2.4% year-on-year. Broadcom’s revenue from the semiconductor division is said to have declined for five consecutive quarters due to market competition and Sino-US trade frictions. making the ranking of first and second place transposition. In addition to the continuous impact of the Sino-US trade dispute, Broadcom is also affected by the recent decline in the shipment of mobile phones by major customers such as Apple.

Nvidia ranked third with revenue of US$2.95 billion, a year-on-year increase of 39.6%. In addition, MediaTek, AMD, Xilinx, Marvell, Novatek, Realtek, and Synapsis also emerge among the top ten.

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(source)

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The world’s largest contract shipmaker, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) has teamed up with US based integrated circuit designer Broadcom to develop the latest 5nm process chips.

Earlier this week, TSMC held a conference in which it announced the collaboration with Broadcom. The move to work together was made to improve the Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) circuitry that supports 5nm technology. In simpler terms, the partnership will bring about a more efficient and advanced process which will be capable of manufacturing 5nm chipsets for next gen technology.

In the collaborative effort, TSMC will be responsible for providing one stop services from IC packaging to pure wafer foundry service to Broadcom. The latter has brought along with it, tech industry giants like Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, and Huawei, all of which will use the former’s 5nm process technology.

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As of right now, the 7nm process from the Taiwanese chipmaker is the latest process that is currently seeing mass production. This is being done whilst the more complex 5nm and even 3nm processes are also under development. The new found partnership will see the next generation of TSMC chips providing bandwidth up to 2.7 terabytes per second, which is 2.7 times faster than the CoWoS solution which was previously offered back in 2016.

According to the chipmaker, the higher bandwidth and memory capacity translate to better results during memory intensive workloads such as deep learning, 5G networking, and power efficient data centers. This will also benefit the smartphone market, IoT industry, and even automotive electronics as well. The development of the new 5nm process and its future will have the chipmaker’s capital expenditure set around 15 to 16 billion US Dollars in 2020 alone.

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(Via)

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Apple and Broadcom have been ordered by a jury to pay $1.1 billion to the California Institute of Technology for infringing the university’s patents. The jury has ruled that Apple must pay Caltech $837.8 million and Broadcom must pay $270.2 million.

However, Apple said that it is planning to appeal the ruling but has refused to say anything else about this. In a statement, Broadcom said that “we disagree with the factual and legal bases for the verdict and intend to appeal.”

In a statement, CalTech said: “We are pleased the jury found that Apple and Broadcom infringed Caltech patents. As a non-profit institution of higher education, Caltech is committed to protecting its intellectual property in furtherance of its mission to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education.”

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The case was filed in federal court in Los Angeles in 2016, in which the California-based research university alleged that Broadcom Wi-Fi chips used in hundreds of millions of Apple devices infringed patents relating to data transmission technology.

The technology relates to Wi-Fi chips Apple used in its iPhones, iPads, Macs and other devices from the year 2010 to 2017. Apple argued that it shouldn’t have been involved in the lawsuit — which was filed in 2016 — because it’s using off-the-shelf Broadcom chips, like many other handset makers.

Apple argued that “Broadcom manufactures the accused chips, while Apple is merely an indirect downstream party whose products incorporate the accused chips.” However, the jury disagreed with this argument.

Broadcom is a major Apple supplier, deriving about a fifth of its sales from the Cupertino-based company in its fiscal 2019. Last week, the company revealed that it had signed deals to sell as much as $15 billion worth of chips to Apple.

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Earlier this week, Broadcom, a known chip manufacturer, announced that it has entered into a contract with Apple. The deal is to supply its wireless components in the smartphone giant’s products.

The new deal (2020 SOW) is an extension to previous agreements of supplying radio frequency components and modules to Apple and carries an estimated value of about 15 billion US Dollars. The two corporations have entered into a two multi-year agreement for the wireless components.

Notably, shares of the chipmaker have already risen by 2 percent in extended trading following this news which arrived this Thursday (23rd January 2020). On the other hand, Apple has reportedly asked Wistron to ramp up the iPhone production in its facilities in India. The Cupertino based giant’s iPhone 11 series was exceptionally well received and has also become popular in China, which has historically been a large but uneven market for Apple.

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Furthermore, the smartphone manufacturer has also approached TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) to raise its production for its proprietary Apple A13 chipset. This has also been undertaken due to the high demands of its 2019 iPhone lineup, which surpassed market expectations and analysts’ speculations.

Apple’s iPhone 2020 lineup will arrive in the latter half of this year and is expected to arrive with 5G networking capabilities. Thus, the new deal with Broadcom can also be looked at as Apple preparing for its upcoming lineup and even secure a deal in advance for its 2021 iPhone series.

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(Via)

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Some of Broadcom’s cable modems come with flawed firmware which could mean more than 200 million vulnerable homes. Four Danish researchers, Alexander Dalsgaard Krog, Jens Hegner Stærmose, Kasper Kohsel Terndrup (from Lyrebirds) and freelancer Simon Vandel Sillesen uncovered CVE-2019-19494, a flaw which could enable man-in-the-middle attacks, information theft, communications eavesdropping, DDoS attacks and so on.

“The cable modems are vulnerable to remote code execution through a web-socket connection, bypassing normal CORS and SOC rules, and then subsequently by overflowing the registers and executing malicious functionality. The exploit is possible due to lack of protection proper authorization of the web-socket client, default credentials and a programming error in the spectrum analyzer,” the researchers explained.

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“These vulnerabilities can give an attacker full remote control over the entire unit, and all the traffic that flows through it, while being invisible for both the user and ISP and able to ignore remote system updates.”

While the problem is clearly widespread, the researchers said it’s difficult to get a precise estimate of Cable Haunt reach. “The reason for this is that the vulnerability originated in reference software, which has seemingly been copied by different cable modems manufacturers when creating their cable modem firmware,” the researchers said on their website.

“This means that we have not been able to track the exact spread of the vulnerability and that it might present itself in slightly different ways for different manufacturers.”

The good news is that most Scandinavian Internet service providers (ISPs) report that they have already patched the affected devices, while the team responsible for the discovery has set up a dedicated Cable Haunt website for users to track developments.

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(Source)

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Broadcom is looking for a buyer for its wireless chip units as the company shifts focus on software. According to a post on the Wall Street Journal, Broadcom has partnered with investment services Credit Suisse Group AG to find a prospective client for its RF unit wing, which manufactures a wireless chip used by cell phone manufacturers to clarify signals.

The business generated $2.2 billion in revenue in 2019 and could be worth upwards of $10 billion, sources familiar with the business revealed. The report comes at the heels of Broadcom reclassifying its wireless units as outside the purview of its semiconductor business. During an interview with WSJ, Broadcom’s CEO Hock Tan referred to the wireless business as a standalone franchise that does not gel well with the company’s usual line of business. Broadcom is historically a buyer of networking, software, and semiconductor businesses.

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Broadcom has adapted its business module towards software in the past couple of years. The company closed a deal to purchase Symantec’s enterprise solutions earlier in November 2019, in a massive $10.7 billion takeover. Broadcom earlier purchased CA Technologies for $18.9 billion in 2018.

Chris Caso, an analyst for investment banking firm Raymond James claims potential buyers for Broadcom’s RF chip unit include Qorvo, Qualcomm, and Skyworks Solutions. Caso claims Broadcom’s high band FBARs are the best in the business and will play a crucial role in the implementation of the 5G spectrum. However, Apple is expected to bid the highest for the RF chip unit, which already uses Broadcom parts in iPhones. Broadcom’s chips are also an integral part of Wi-Fi semiconductors, but since that business is on a steady decline, Apple is the likely contender to take it home. 

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(source)

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Just over a year ago, Broadcom launched a bid for rival chipmaker Qualcomm. The bid was blocked by the US president Donald Trump citing security reasons. In its expansion bid, Broadcom is reportedly set to take another major step forward as it looks to spread its tentacle beyond semiconductors into the software business.

A report carried by Bloomberg quotes people familiar with the potential deal to have revealed that the company is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity firm Symantec. Symantec is the world’s largest maker of cybersecurity software and it provides products and services to over 350,000 organizations and 50m people. The deal could be sealed as early as a few weeks but presently, no deal has yet been finalized and the talks could still collapse. This will be Broadcom’s second big software acquisition if it succeeds. The company had completed an $18bn takeover of CA Technologies last year.

The news of a buy bid by Broadcom propelled Symantec’s shares upwards by 22 percent in extended trading. However, neither Broadcom nor Symantec has commented on the news.

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(source)

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Broadcom tried really hard to acquire Qualcomm, the leader of mobile chipset manufacturers. But even though the Singapore giant placed several high bids, the San Diego-based chipmaker has declined its offers and the U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected its plan to acquire the company. After Broadcom failed at acquiring Qualcomm, some rumors about MediaTek have started circulating.

According to a U.S. business website called Motley Fool, the Singapore company has listed the Taiwanese MediaTek, which is the second mobile chipmaker in the world, as the new acquisition target. Well, now it has been confirmed that it is not true. MTK’s Chief Financial Offer David Ku has just confirmed in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that MediaTek never got in touch with Broadcom for an acquisition.

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Even though it lost its battle with Qualcomm, MTK is still very strong in the mobile chipsets market, and that is why it would be a great resource for many companies in case of an acquisition. In the last few days, shares of MediaTek fell 1.9% at NT$366 on Taiwan Stock Exchange. According to Motley Fool, besides Broadcom, Intel is another company which may be interested in acquiring MediaTek in order to enter the mobile chipsets market again.

(Via)

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Broadcom has officially withdrawn its $117 billion bid to acquire its rival chipmaker Qualcomm. This development comes after US President Donald Trump blocked the acquisition efforts citing national security risk.

In a statement, Broadcom said that is would comply with the order from the US Government. In line with that, the company is formally withdrawing its bid for Qualcomm, which would have been the biggest takeover in the history of the technology industry.

The company launched its unsolicited bid in November last year, which was quickly and repeatedly rebuffed by Qualcomm’s management and board members. After that, the Singapore-based company had been gathering support from investors to overturn resistance to the deal.

In February, Qualcomm increased its bid for the acquisition of NXP Semiconductors. Broadcom had urged Qualcomm not to do so and when the US-based chipmaker increased the offer, Broadcom responded by reducing its offer for the acquisition of Qualcomm.

The chief executive of Qualcomm, Steve Mollenkopf stated that the deal offers “no real path to value” to Qualcomm. Chinese smartphone manufacturers, including Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo were also against the deal and voiced their opinion at an event hosted by Qualcomm.

In the statement, Broadcom said that along with withdrawing the bid for acquisition of Qualcomm, it has also withdrawn its slate of independent director nominees to Qualcomm’s board.

An investigation related to the Broadcom-Qualcomm deal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviews purchases of American companies by foreign business, confirmed national security threats related to the acquisition.

Read More: Qualcomm And Huawei Technologies Are Reportedly In Talks To Settle Patent Royalty Dispute

Earlier, Broadcom had revealed its plans to move its legal headquarters from Singapore to the United States. Even though the deal was blocked by the US, the company said that it will continue with plans to relocate its headquarters to the United States.

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Broadcom’s bid to buy fellow chipmaker Qualcomm has dominated discussions in the industry for quite some time now. Qualcomm has rejected Broadcom’s offer but that has not deterred the tech giant. However, it looks like the bid has finally hit the rock. Slashgear reports that U.S President Donald Trump has blocked the planned takeover, citing national security concerns. 

We wouldn’t want to get caught up in U.S politics but this seems to bear the same colouring as the U.S president’s recent economic policies of putting the interest of American companies first. It played out recently in the increased tariffs on Steel and Aluminium imports and may be what is making the U.S authorities block Huawei’s bid to take on Apple on home turf by advising U.S citizens against buying Huawei’s smartphones under the guise of national security concerns. Broadcom is a foreign-owned firm and is presently based in Singapore although the company is planning a return of its headquarters to the U.S. In this case, though, Donald Trump might just be doing us all a whole lot of good by blocking such a massive takeover which would have been the biggest in the industry.

Read Also: Xiaomi, OPPO, And Vivo Are Against Broadcom’s Qualcomm Takeover Bid

According to the report, Trump’s order cites concerns that a Broadcom takeover of Qualcomm could “impair the national security of the United States.” The order further states that Broadcom and Qualcomm should immediately and permanently abandon the proposed takeover. Both firms are also required to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that such termination is effected.

(source)

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For a few months now, a major acquisition has been brewing in the semiconductor industry and that is Broadcom’s plan to take over Qualcomm. Latest reports says if Broadcom succeeds, it may itself get acquired by Intel.

Intel is the king of chipmakers for personal computers in the world but it really has no presence in the mobile industry. Its attempt to enter into the mobile space a few years ago failed even after spending a lot of money.

According to the Wall Street Journal “Intel is watching the takeover battle closely and is eager for Broadcom to fail [at acquiring Qualcomm] as the combined company would pose a serious competitive threat, the people said.”

At the moment, Intel will be pulling strings to see that Broadcom doesn’t acquire Qualcomm, and if it doesn’t succeed Intel will then be forced to acquire Broadcom. The initial buy-out price we are looking it at is a whopping $109 billion.

Funny enough, Intel is not the only one that wants the acquisition to fail. The US Govt. also doesn’t want it to succeed. The US has set up a committee on foreign investment whose job is to regulate the acquisitions of American companies by foreign ones.

Broadcom is seen as a foreign company as it is legally considered to be based in Singapore or better put, domiciled in Singapore even though most of its employees and offices are in the US. However, Broadcom is already planning to re-domicile to the US as a result of the tax reform plan.

Apart from that, the committee also thinks that the take-over will cause a “reduction in Qualcomm’s long-term technological competitiveness and influence in standard setting (which) would significantly impact US national security”. The acquisition will weaken Qualcomm’s position as a technological leader and “leave an opening for China to expand its influence on the 5G standard-setting process” the committee said recently.

READ MORE: The Snapdragon 855 Fusion Platform With X50 5G Modem is Qualcomm’s Next Flagship Chipset

The outcome of the acquisition is still unknown but it appears Qualcomm doesn’t mind as the only issue it has is with Broadcom’s offer. If a better offer is presented and accepted, then the focus will be turned to Intel’s takeover of Broadcom.

(Sources: 1, 2)

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About a week ago, the leaders of Qualcomm met with Broadcom’s team to discuss the $121 billion acquisition offer. While the results of that meet have not been made public, Broadcom now has a new offer for Qualcomm’s acquisition.

Broadcom has shaved off $3 per share from its takeover bid for Qualcomm, reducing the share’s pricing to $79 a share. However, the price still remains nearly 13 percent above Broadcom’s original offer of $70 per share.

This new offer comes after Broadcom objected to Qualcomm’s decision to raise its own bid for the acquisition of NXP Semiconductors to $44 billion. In response to this new offer, Qualcomm said that Broadcom had made “an inadequate offer even worse”.

Qualcomm increased its offer price for NXP to $127.50 a share from $110 to increase support for the deal among NXP’s shareholders. The move seems to have worked as the company said that investors who roughly control about 28 percent of NXP’s shares, who had opposed the company’s initial offer as being too low, have now agreed to tender their shares.

Under the new terms agreed with NXP’s board, the deal with Qualcomm is contingent on 70 percent of NXP’s shares being tendered, instead of the 80 percent threshold in the earlier agreement. Once the threshold is reached, Qualcomm can take over the entire company through a “second-step” transaction mechanism.

In a statement, Broadcom said, “Qualcomm’s board acted against the best interests of its stockholders by unilaterally transferring excessive value to NXP’s activist stockholders.” The company also added that its bid would automatically rise again to $82 if Qualcomm failed to complete its purchase of NXP. Broadcom also criticized Qualcomm on Wednesday for not liaising with it before raising its NXP bid.

Read More: Chinese Phone Makers, Including Xiaomi, OPPO, And Vivo Are Against Broadcom’s Qualcomm Takeover Bid

However, Qualcomm defended its move to increase the value of the NXP deal, arguing that it would expand the company’s markets and offer cost savings. Research analysts now believe that this move raises the chances that the  San Diego-based chipmaker will buy NXP and lowers the chances of a Broadcom-Qualcomm deal.

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Broadcom has been in the run in to buy fellow chipmaker Qualcomm, first launching a bid for the mobile chip manufacturer around November last year. That bid valued at $105 billion was rejected by Qualcomm, who said it undervalued the company. Now, Broadcom earlier last week launched a second bid valued at $121 billion for the San Diego chip manufacturer but that also has been rejected.

A press statement released by Qualcomm on Friday stated that its board of directors had “unanimously” rejected the unsolicited proposal. The offer would have seen Broadcom acquire all of Qualcomm’s outstanding shares for $82 each by paying $60 in cash and $22 in Broadcom stock. But Qualcomm thinks the bid “materially undervalues” the company even though it is the largest bid the tech industry has ever seen. The deal was also 15% higher than Broadcom’s first bid. However, this time around Qualcomm in the statement offered to meet Broadcom to discuss a number of “important questions” regarding the “serious deficiencies in value and certainty in its proposal.”

Read Also: Xiaomi, OPPO, And Vivo Are Against Broadcom’s Qualcomm Takeover Bid

Even if Qualcomm agrees to a deal with Broadcom, that deal would face serious scrutiny from regulatory agencies and may even be rejected over competition concerns. Broadcom seems to go all the way as it had earlier submitted its own nominees for Qualcomm’s board in a bid to force the rival chip maker to a deal. We could see more battles in the future.

(source)

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Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo — three of the largest smartphone manufacturers from China, have come out opposing Broadcom Inc.’s hostile bid to acquire mobile chipset giant Qualcomm Inc. The companies are arguing that a combination of the two giant chipmakers will create a monopoly and stifle innovation.

The three manufacturers said that they were worried that research and development may sputter if Broadcom takes control of Qualcomm. If the proposed acquisition deal goes through, then Broadcom will dominate the market for the wireless semiconductors found in all smartphones.

Smartphone manufacturers heavily rely on Qualcomm for the processors that power their devices. While companies like Samsung and Huawei are able to develop their own chipsets, most other manufacturers are equipped with such resources.

Lin Bin, a Xiaomi co-founder, said at a Qualcomm-sponsored event, “The thing we worry about the most is if it were completed, will there be continued investment in the future? Without the investment, the entire industry will not grow well. So from this point of view, Xiaomi fully supports Qualcomm.”

Oppo said that while Broadcom a history of financial deal-making, the company lacks the track record in technology development. Executives at ZTE as well as Lenovo-owned Motorola also voiced their opposition at the event.

This development comes just days after a few Chinese smartphone makers entered into an agreement to work with Qualcomm for developing fifth-generation wireless devices. They forged an alliance that also included networking gear-maker ZTE Corp.

Qualcomm rejected the initial bid launched by Broadcom stating that the bid grossly undervalued the fabless chip manufacturer. The company then escalated its efforts at sapping up Qualcomm for $130 billion by submitting its own slate of directors to unseat the present Qualcomm board of directors by March next year.

Read More: Qualcomm Leads The SoC Market In Q3 2017 By A Significant Margin, Apple In Second Place

The chief executive of Qualcomm, Steve Mollenkopf stated that the deal offers “no real path to value” to Qualcomm. If the deal scales through, it would be the largest ever acquisition in the tech sector. However, it looks very unlikely that such deal would scale through, considering the huge power the merged company could muster in the booming sector.

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When it was reported that Qualcomm had rejected Broadcom’s $130 billion USD unsolicited bid, the possible options that Broadcom could still explore in order to achieve its goal were outlined. One of the options was to move for a change of Qualcomm’s current board whose tenure expires next year by submitting its own slate of candidates for the board. The U.S tech giant is reportedly set to explore that option as sources have disclosed that Broadcom will tender its list of candidates for the board today which is Monday.

The move is no doubt a confrontational one, as it is aimed to push out the present directors who they believe are not open to see the deal scale through. This is one of two moves Broadcom is reportedly taking in their bid to acquire Qualcomm. If they fail to effect a change of Qualcomm’s board before March next year, Broadcom is tipped as planning to improve on its earlier offer. Broadcom had offered Qualcomm’s shareholders $60 in cash and $10 in Broadcom’s stock for each of their shares. The details of the new offer aren’t known and wouldn’t be disclosed until March next year after the results of the Board of Directors voting is known. A new offer will only come if its candidates fail to win, the source hints.

Read Also: Broadcom’s Attempt To Acquire Qualcomm Could Face Regulatory Scrutiny In China

Financial experts are of the opinion that even if Broadcom fail to succeed in its bid to change Qualcomm’s board, it may likely succeed in acquiring the fabless chipmaker with an improved offer. Majority of Qualcomm’s shareholders (77%) are said to be institutions like mutual funds, hedge funds and private trust funds firms.What this means is that these institutions are only interested in selling their investors’ shares for the largest profit. Qualcomm closed Friday’s trading at $65.49, so a $70 per share bid may not sound lucrative. However, a bid to the tune of $85 to $90 sounds lucrative enough to help win over Qualcomm’s shareholders swiftly. Moreso, Broadcom offers more profitability in the long run, with its shares closing at $271.56 as at Friday last week. The drama is getting interesting by the day. Perhaps, we’ll soon see the biggest acquisition is the tech industry kickstarted. Even with a yes vote from Qualcomm’s board, it could take up to one year before it gets approved by the relevant regulatory agencies. But then, something just makes the idea of the current Qualcomm structure being dismantled feel good.

(source)

The post Broadcom Set For Showdown, To Tender Its List of Candidates For Qualcomm’s Board Today appeared first on Gizmochina.

There are indications that Broadcom will launch another bid for Qualcomm. The chipmaker is reportedly contemplating raising the initial offer made to buy rival-company, Qualcomm. It would be recalled that Qualcomm rejected the initial bid launched by Broadcom and one of the reasons given was that the bid grossly undervalued the fabless chip manufacturer. Qualcomm is considered globally as the number one System-on-Chips manufacturer for mobile devices. 

The improvement involves offering more of Broadcom’s stock and this idea is said to have been mooted after consultation with several of Qualcomm’s top shareholders, according to sources familiar with the affair. There was no news as to when Broadcom will launch the bid but the fact that the issue hasn’t died down is an indication that Broadcom is planning to mount pressure on Qualcomm to engage in negotiations. The pressure has all the dressing of a carrot and sticks approach. First, the carrot would be dangled by offering more stocks to Qualcomm’s shareholders and then they’ll wield the stick by threatening to replace its board of directors. Broadcom’s CEO Hock Tan has hinted that he is ready to lunch a takeover battle and sources had reported previously that the tech giant is preparing to submit a slate of directors before Qualcomm’s December 8 nomination deadline. Apparently, the tenure of the present board is about to expire. That would afford Broadcom the opportunity to swing things in its favour as Qualcomm shareholders that want the company to engage in deal talks with Broadcom will be able to vote for that slate at a March 6 shareholder meeting.

Related: Qualcomm Signs $12 Billion Deal With Xiaomi, Vivo, and OPPO

Already, Qualcomm shares have jumped by more than 2 percent pitching at $68.05 after the news of the possible sweetened offer. On the other hand, Broadcom shares were down 0.3 percent at $275.82. The last is yet to be heard on this Broadcom/Qualcomm affair.

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The post Broadcom Reportedly Planning To Launch An Improved Bid For Qualcomm appeared first on Gizmochina.

Broadcom last week made an unsolicited $130 billion bid for fellow chip maker Qualcomm and we can tell you now that Qualcomm has officially rejected the offer. Broadcom had offered that for every share of Qualcomm it receives, the Qualcomm’s stockholders will get $60 in cash and $10 in Broadcom stock. This $70 face value of the transaction represents a 28% premium from Qualcomm’s closing stock price the day before rumours about the merger first started to appear.

Qualcomm’s Board of Directors reportedly met today and a unanimous decision was reached from Qualcomm’s board of directors which expressed the company’s belief that Broadcom’s offer “dramatically undervalues Qualcomm,” and moreover, “comes with significant regulatory uncertainty.” The Qualcomm board also believes the company is well positioned to “lead the transition to 5G”. We really can’t say this is the end as a new improved bid could see both companies struck a deal.

Read Also: Broadcom’s Attempt To Acquire Qualcomm Could Face Regulatory Scrutiny In China

Even if Qualcomm had agreed to the deal, regulatory agencies would have to give their approval, along with stockholders of both firms and the possibility of sailing through all the hurdles looked unfeasible. Qualcomm has often faced criticism for not licensing its standard-essential patents in a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory manner. The company is also faced with series of litigations, including one with Apple and it recently sought a ban on iPhone sales in China.

(source)

The post Qualcomm Officially Rejects Broadcom’s $130 billion Takeover Bid appeared first on Gizmochina.

Broadcom recently made an unsolicited $130 billion bid for the acquisition of chipmaker Qualcomm, which would be the single largest pure technology deal in history and create a $200 billion manufacturing giant.

The offer, which includes $25 billion of net debt, evaluates Qualcomm at about $70.00 per share — which is a premium over the company’s $61.81 valuation after the end of trading last Friday.

However, experts believe that the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China may block or restrict the merger even though both companies agree to the consolidation deal.

The deal is expected to come under particular regulatory scrutiny in China as authorities are focusing on protecting domestic players in a key industrial sector.

A Hong Kong-based technology lawyer, who remains unnamed, said to FT:

Given China’s ambitions in the chip and mobile telecoms space, I can’t see the Chinese authorities taking kindly to a Broadcom-Qualcomm merger. It would likely create the biggest and most powerful player in the mobile chip market.

The Chinese regulator would likely organise a full-fledged review of a Qualcomm-Broadcom merger deal. The process takes place in three major phases and can span up to six months, possibly even longer in case of justified delays or a lack of cooperation from any entities being reviewed.

While Qualcomm and Broadcom aren’t Chinese companies, their consolidation is subject to the review of the commerce ministry’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau. China’s ministry of commerce requires all deals involving parties to apply for Chinese merger approval if the combined global turnover of the company is exceeding $1.5 billion or combined China income exceeding $300m — an unusually low filing threshold.

And since Qualcomm and Broadcom’s combined China income surpasses 2 billion yuan ($300 million) and their combined global revenues in the last year were over 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), the Chinese government has enough to legally warrant an investigation.

Sources claims that Qualcomm is adamant to resist the $130 billion hostile takeover attempt that it believes undervalues the company and will recommend its shareholders to reject it. The company is currently reviewing the unsolicited bid and has not reacted to the offer apart from acknowledging its existence.

Read More: Qualcomm Vs Apple: Qualcomm is Suing Apple For Alleged Breach Of Contract

The acquisition offer from Broadcom comes when Qualcomm is faces legal battles in multiple countries over its business practice. The company was recently fined a record NT$23.4 billion ($774 million) by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission.

Qualcomm has also been fined $854 million in South Korea and $975 million in China. The company is also facing lawsuits from Apple and the Fair Trade Commission in the United States. The key matter in almost all lawsuit is that the company uses its dominant position to charge unfair royalty rates.

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Broadcom is reportedly planning for an unsolicited bid to acquire smartphone chip maker Qualcomm for over $103 billion in what would be the largest acquisition deal in this space.

People aware of the development says that Broadcom is currently speaking to advisers about the potential deal and the bid could be announced in the coming days, probably creating a roughly $200 billion company.

While the valuation of the bid from Broadcomm has not been decided yet, it is believed that the offer of around $70 to $80 per share is being contemplated. At $70 a share, an offer would value Qualcomm at around $103.2 billion — a premium of around $27.5 percent.

This comes at a time when Qualcomm is trying to close its pending acquisition of NXP Semiconductors worth $38 billion. According to the sources, Broadcom is also prepared to buy NXP Semiconductors in addition to Qualcomm as it aims to emerge as a global chipmaking giant.

It is noteworthy that a source has also stressed that no final decision has been made yet related to the deal. So there is still a chance for Broadcom to not proceed with a bid.

The development also comes when Qualcomm is faces legal battles in multiple countries over its business practice. The company was recently fined a record NT$23.4 billion ($774 million) by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission.

Qualcomm has also been fined $854 million in South Korea and $975 million in China. It is also facing lawsuits from Apple and the FTC in the United States. The key matter in the allegation is that Qualcomm uses its dominant position to charge unfair royalty rates.

Read More: LG And Qualcomm Join Hands To Develop Autonomous Driving Technology

Broadcom has recently announced it would move its corporate headquarters from Singapore back to the US. The company is a major supplier of iPhone parts and counts Apple among its largest customers. It is not clear what would happen to Qualcomm’s legal fight with Apple if this deal goes through but it’s likely that Broadcom would settle the dispute.

However, getting clearance for such as huge deal is not an easy task, and apart from the financial challenges, the deal may also encounter close regulatory scrutiny. The combined entity would be the world’s third-largest chipmaker, just behind Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co.

(Source)

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Even though millions of users make use of GPS enabled services like Google Maps and Apple Maps for navigating, the GPS chips do not show accurate location. For instance, when you are driving on the highway, the navigation app can’t accurately tell whether you are on the highway or on the road next to it.  This is because the accuracy of today’s GPS solutions works within a range of 3 to 5 meters. During the ongoing ION GNSS+ 2017 conference in Portland, Broadcom has announced that it is building a GPS chip that can accurately lock the location within 30 centimeters.

The existing GPS chips lock location by interacting with older GPS satellites that release L1 signal. The new L5 signal is sent out by newer GPS satellites. Broadcom has confirmed that it is its new GPS chip, the BCM4755, can work with the new type of GPS satellite can accurately detect the location of the user.

Read More: The XOSS Sprint Is A Crowdfunded Quad GPS Cycling Computer With ANT+, BLE & Lots More

Since the mass production of the chip is expected to begin soon, the semiconductor company has also claimed that the new GPS chip will be available on smartphones that will be released next year. The BCM4755 chip works by first receiving the L1 signal first and then refine the position by locking into L5 signal. The new chip is not only accurate, but also consumes less power than the existing GPS chips.

In cities, GPS satellite signals come in contact with receiver directly as well as through bouncing off from surfaces like buildings. Hence, it reaches the receiver at different times. If these signals overlap with each other, it may result in the formation of signal blob.

The receiver then tries to find the highest point in this blob in order to fix the time of arrival. A messier blob can lead to inaccurately calculated position. However, the direct and reflected signals of L5 are unlikely to overlap.  Thus, the GPS chip will ignore all the signal that it receives after receiving the direct signal. To enhance the accuracy, the BCM4755 chip will be able to use the phase information in the carrier signal.

Hence, people living in cities will be able to enjoy accurate positioning starting from the next year, thanks to Broadcom. However, it remains to be known whether it will be widely available on smartphones in 2018 as Qualcomm is the largest vendor of GPS chips in the world.

(source)

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Considering the powerful handheld devices available these days, it is strange that it has taken so long for the streaming capabilities of the average homeowner to catch up. It might have just happened, however, Xiaomi’s 4K Mi TV2 is now available and it contains a groundbreaking component. Broadcom’s 5G Wifi chip is actually capable of providing the speed, bandwidth and range to achieve seamless connectivity with other devices, online mobile gaming and HD-quality streaming.

This kind of technological breakthrough could herald a huge increase in demand for smart TVs, with Gartner2 reporting that 85% of all LCD TVs will be Smart TVs by 2018, and it is the synchronisation of devices that is demanded the most from new technology, so the 5G capability is bound to be a popular advancement. The TV also offers superior gaming features and access to thousands of free HD movies and on-demand services.

The two companies certainly seem to have struck gold insofar as combining their products goes, being able to produce a Smart TV capable of so much so quickly was a masterstroke of Xiaomi’s, and Broadcom’s hardware will add capability to Xiaomi’s affordable excellence in design we have all come to expect. It is something of a match made in heaven if the spokespeople are to be believed, with Broadcom Senior Director Alex Chou effusing “By combining our cutting edge technology with their own design expertise, Xiaomi has raised the bar for smart TV performance and delivered a remarkable new home entertainment experience to the China consumers.” It certainly is cutting edge technology, with the 5G performing up to 3 times faster and with six times more power than the earlier 802.11 version, it provides 8 times the capacity and broader coverage with improved reliability. This gigantic stride forward, when coupled with Xiaomi’s design and value is certainly a product worth investing in.

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