Intel is close to completing a deal worth as much as $1.4 billion for German chip maker Infineon's mobile chip business, according to a report in a German newspaper, fueling speculation that Intel plans to further enmesh itself in the wireless market.
According to a report in Die Welt, the two companies have met multiple times in the past few weeks but have not yet inked a deal. The new report comes on the heels of another in June in the Financial Times Deutschland that said Infineon had hired J.P. Morgan to explore the possibility of a sale. Representatives from Intel and Infineon declined to comment. The price of the Infineon division is estimated to be between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion, the report said.
Infineon's wireless solutions unit raked in $1.13 billion in revenue in the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, or about 30 percent of the firm's total revenue. The company makes chips for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad as well as for devices from Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) and others.
Intel, for its part, has been steadily increasing its mobile presence. In May, the company unveiled a new Atom-based processor platform specifically aimed at the smartphone market. Although it is the world's largest chip maker, in mobile processors Intel has consistently trailed behind the likes of Qualcomm (NSYE:QCOM), Texas Instruments, Marvell and Nvidia, which use low-powered architecture from ARM Holdings.
Further, Intel earlier this year combined its Moblin Linux OS with Nokia's Maemo to form MeeGo, and at least one product from Nokia running Intel's Moorestown chips and using MeeGo is expected by year-end.
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this EETimes article
- see this Reuters article
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