Qualcomm has been in the news a lot recently for a wide variety of reasons. From potentially being bought out by Broadcom for $103 billion before turning it down, to being the target of many antitrust lawsuits, the San Diego based company has been in an interesting position for the last couple of months. After losing antitrust lawsuits in Taiwan, South Korea and China, it seemed that Qualcomm was going to lose yet again when it faced a potential block in Japan over acquiring NXP Semiconductors for $38 Billion.
However, according to a report from Reuters, it seems that Qualcomm may be cleared in Japan to close out the deal, and similarly in the EU once certain conditions are met. The conditions are consumer friendly, and first prevent Qualcomm from purchasing many of NXP’s standard, essential patents and also not to take legal action involving NFC against others using the technology unless it is for defensive purposes. They also have to allow NXP products to work alongside competitor products.
These conditions have also been extended to the Japanese Fair Trade Commission and are likely why a statement will very soon be cleared to close out the deal, with the European Commission expected to follow suit shortly after. This will mean that Qualcomm will have been cleared to make the acquisition in all of their major markets including the US, paving the way to finally finish the deal and acquire NXP Semiconductors.
The concern comes from the fact that Qualcomm may be able to abuse its market position by increasing prices and engaging in other anti-consumer behaviour by decreasing the amount of semiconductor companies in the market. While this is true, it may also allow the company to benefit from the acquisition and decrease costs instead. If Qualcomm had been acquired by Broadcom, the super company would control a large portion of all mobile hardware and have the potential to increase prices at will.
Source: Reuters
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