RISC-V's SiFive sells connectivity IP to Alphawave

Up-and-coming SiFive is selling its OpenFive business, including its portfolio of blueprints for chip connectivity, to fellow silicon designer Alphawave. SiFive will hand over OpenFive to publicly traded Alphawave for $210m in cash, the pair announced on Monday. SiFive said this will allow it to focus on its core business, …

[Anonymous Coward]

About that

"as long as regulators are happy, because we know their opinions matter on issues like this."

Having never contracted with a chip designer, I don't know if this sale is good or bad.

The problem is, neither do the regulators. It is beyond time that regulators, at least those in the G-7, clarified their thinking, in advance, about what they are concerned about in sales and mergers. This is not to say they will always agree in a particular instance, national interest would certainly be a concern and France's may not agree with Germany's, but things like addressing their philosophy of mergers involving or potentially creating monopolies or cartels should be spelled out.