Some Qualcomm-powered network access points
Last year, it was reported that NVIDIA was getting ready to acquire ARM from SoftBank in a deal that was said to be worth $40 billion. Initially there were rumors and speculation that Apple might be interested given how the company is now making their own chipsets, but it seems that NVIDIA would be the one landing the deal.
However, and we guess it shouldn’t be a surprise, it seems that Qualcomm is not in favor of this deal. While the company has not said anything publicly, a report from CNBC has revealed that Qualcomm has actually spoken to several regulators around the world, including the US FTC, the European Commission, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, and China’s State Administration for Market Regulation.
The company has expressed their concern about the deal, although they did not say why, but it’s not difficult to make a guess. Companies like Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, Huawei, and MediaTek all make their own chipsets, but these chipsets are based on ARM’s architecture. Having a new company take over ARM could mean that things could change in terms of licensing fees, availability, and so on, which could impact Qualcomm’s development on their own products.
That being said, this deal isn’t going to be concluded anytime soon as regulators are still seeking additional information before they can sign off on it, but if the report is true, Qualcomm’s objections could slow down or possibly even kill the process.
Filed in . Read more about ARM, Legal, NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Source: cnbc