Intel: Mobile's next Goliath?
Intel-Infineon deal goes far beyond handsets, putting new technologies in netbooks, tablets, embedded PCs, and more
Follow @BSnyderSFAdd a baseband chip to an Atom processor and what do you get? An integrated piece of silicon that will make mobile devices a lot more powerful -- and place Intel as a leading supplier of components for technology's fastest-growing market.
If that's not clear enough, here's how Intel CEO Paul Otellini explained the $1.4 billion acquisition of Infineon's wireless business in an interview with Fox Business News: "We look forward to a period in the not-so-distant future where all of these functions can be on a single chip. Intel has great capabilities and applications processors today, but bringing in the capabilities for 3G and ultimately LTE (Long-Term Evolution) onto the chip, that makes a lot of sense to us from an economic and power standpoint."
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Unless you own stock in Qualcomm, this is good news. Integrated chips that combine radio functions along with an operating system will make handheld devices smaller, more powerful, and more energy-efficient. Along the way, those chips will help Intel realize its strategic goal of broadening its business beyond the increasingly commoditized PC and server markets.
Indeed, the Infineon deal is a good fit. Nathan Brookwood, a longtime chip analyst and research fellow at Insight64, sums up the industry's reaction: "All you can say, is what's not to like?"
Takeover fever is back
The Infineon wireless buy comes hard on the heels of the chip giant's acquisition of security software vendor McAfee for a stunning $7.7 billion. It also comes during a summer when cash-rich technology companies have moved decisively into acquisition mode: Dell and HP have been engaged in a heated bidding war for 3Par, Google has purchased Angstro and SocialDeck, and Cisco is reportedly trying to acquire Skype.
