Could Qualcomm Buy Intel?

Question

I saw this floating around. Unsure if it&rsquo;s serious. Seems like it would be a huge win for Qualcomm: they&rsquo;d get fabs, all the x86 IP (or maybe that&rsquo;d have to be spun out), system integrator know how for use with Qualcomm&rsquo;s ARM stuff, networking, etc etc. all of this would help them with their VMWare side: maybe they go the HP route with green lake and ship the hardware with the software a la Sun Microsystems?What do the VCs say? The lawyers say? Does it even make sense?

Kubuxu · Accepted Answer

AFAIK Intel and AMD have cross-licensing deals for x86 and AMD64 which become invalid in case of acquisition, on the side that gets acquired. This means that you cannot acquire rights to manufacture x64 by acquiring either of them.

bell-cot · Answer

Definite Non-Expert Opinions:From a quick peek (Yahoo! Finance web site), Q has about 2X the market cap of I, so it's plausible-ish there.Q looks to be a US company, so probably no "can't sell America's critical technology companies to foreigners" veto from the US Govt.I don't know what the anti-trust situation would look like...but the US Govt. has some history of blatently ignoring such things when they think something is vital to their interests.Huge question in my mind: Why would Q pay that kind of money? (Yahoo! sez I's market cap is ~$93 billion, and companies are usually bought at a substantial premium to that.) I is in an extremely complex business, and seems to be in seriously deep do-do. Sure, on paper, Q could get their hands on all sorts of awesome assets from buying I. But, on paper, the Titanic and her contents were still worth a fabulous fortune an hour after her infamous bump in the night.Speculation: Talk about Q buying I is just a means to an end. Test the waters. Pour some blood into them, to see what's attracted to the struggling I. Check whether futile-looking struggles and more bad news could further tank I's market cap. Q might consider buying I, if the price was dirt cheap - but mostly they hope to buy the specific parts of I which they really want, after the sharks tear I into pieces.

dchest · Answer

VMWare is owned by Broadcom.

greenthrow · Answer

No way this would go through even if it made sense for Qualcomm, which I'm not sure it does.

tester756 · Answer

There's SHITTON of various rumors about Intel because they're during biggest transformation in decades and they're at their low point.Buy their stock and forget about it for next 5-6 years

ChrisArchitect · Answer

Ask your question in the discussion! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41604817

deepfriedchokes · Answer

As someone else said in another thread, if it benefits US tech China will squash it.

ipsum2 · Answer

Big tech mergers seem to be halted with the current SEC chair. Maybe next year if the administration changes.