back to article There’s no way Qualcomm is buying Intel as is

Qualcomm may be after more than Intel's PC design business as it has supposedly approached the x86 giant about a possible takeover. That's what unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal for a report published Friday. CNBC also said it heard the same thing: That Qualcomm contacted Intel about a potential takeover in recent …

  1. yet another bruce

    Picture this. Broadcom buys Intel. Stops selling x64 processors. Charges a very expensive license for IP required for AMD to continue making x64 processors. AMD double prices. AMD and Broadcom make out like bandits.

    1. mark l 2 Silver badge

      I suspect the patents on a the original 16bit and 32bit x86 designs Intel had have now expired as in the US its only for 20 years. AMD own the patents on X86-64 although that is also probably over 20 years ago now. So either company can probably make a x86-64 CPU without needing patents from the other. But of course they have added all these other extensions to their CPUs SSE. MMX etc which means a patent less X86-64 CPU created today might be fine for running older versions of Windows like XP but a lot of newer software that rely of these extensions would not work.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        AMD also has cross-licensing agreements from the start.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      WTF?

      Non-starter: Broadcom is already too heavily geared for this even if regulators didn't intervene, which they would.

    3. Michael Strorm Silver badge

      Picture this. Competition regulators in countless countries throughout the world- including virtually all their major Western markets- come down like a hammer on such blatantly anti-competitive behaviour in such a critical market that it completely f***s up AMD and Broadcom's (*) ability to trade freely and make money at all, let alone "make out like bandits" as planned.

      At this point I'll pre-empt the possibility that one of the usual laissez-faire/pseudo-libertarian suspects will suggest that AMD and Broadcom could turn round and say "Oh yeah? Well, where else are you going to get the x86 chips your economies depend upon from? Muwahaha!" then hold those markets to ransom until they capitulate. I suspect that in the real world this would *not* play out in the same way as the Ayn Rand-style fantasy version.

      (Partly because even huge companies like that generally *don't* have the ability- or inclination- to sit on their hands without any income for an arbitrary amount of time. But also because they'd find out that even *they* were small fry- and the limits of their powers- when pitting themselves against entire countries who weren't about to let themselves be held ransom by a monopoly that only existed because of laws enforced- or not enforced- by those same governments...!)

      (*) Also, I thought we were talking about Qualcomm here- did you genuinely mean Broadcom or are you confusing the two (possibly since Broadcom have been in the news a lot recently since *their* controversial buyout of VMWare)?

    4. isr

      Wait, don't you have this completely backwards? x86-64 instruction set was NOT created by Intel, but by AMD. In linux, the nomenclature for x86 64bit (in compiler, elsewhere) is actually "amd64".

      It's Intel who need to license it from amd, not the other way around

  2. heyrick Silver badge

    Hmm...

    Somebody leaks rumours.

    Stock price dips.

    They can buy more for less.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Hmm...

      Also, on the other side of the rumour, stock price increases and they can sell less for more. Double dipping.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Hmm...

      The SEC is normally pretty good at clamping down on such schemes.

  3. Omnipresent Bronze badge

    Everybody smells bs here.

    There is zero chance in hell America sells intel to china.

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Pirate

      Re: Everybody smells bs here.

      I don't see why not. That's the American way, everything is for sale at the right price.

      GJC

    2. Peter D

      Re: Everybody smells bs here.

      Since when was Qualcomm Chinese? I'm sure it would have been mentioned at the time.

      1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: Everybody smells bs here.

        A very good point, actually. I didn't even think to check.

        GJC

        1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: Everybody smells bs here.

          Ah, the caring, sharing face of El Reg commentards, where even an admission of fallibility gets downvoted.

          GJC

          1. heyrick Silver badge

            Re: Everybody smells bs here.

            Sometimes I suspect there's this one person that, in a pique of imagined rage, goes through and hammers the down icons.

            Well, if that's their idea of entertainment... <shrug>

    3. StrangerHereMyself Silver badge

      Re: Everybody smells bs here.

      Qualcomm is a U.S. company headquartered in California.

      You're confusing them with Broadcom, which is also a U.S. company which used to be headquartered in Singapore but has since relocated to the continental U.S.

  4. druck Silver badge

    Watchout for the reverse takeover.

    I'd be worried the remnants of Intel management might convince Qualcomm to give x86 another chance in mobile.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Watchout for the reverse takeover.

      I think that ship sailed years ago. If they try it, everyone will just use Samsung's chips.

      The risk with Qualcomm is its closeness to the US military. On the one hand, the US military would have excellent chip design and production facilities under its control, on the other, the US military would have excellent chip design and production facilities under its control! ;-)

  5. StrangerHereMyself Silver badge

    Authorities

    There's no way a takeover of this kind would pass muster with EU and US cartel authorities. It would be shot down before they could spell"Takeover."

  6. Torben Mogensen

    Maybe only the foundry?

    As far as I recall, Qualcomm has no foundry of its own, so it might be mainly this that interests them. They have plenty of chip designers, and their interest in x86 is probably low. Some of Intel's patents may be interesting to Qualcomm, though I can't say which.

    So Qualcomm may bid to acquire Intel's foundry (which has recently been split off) to fabricate its own chips and license to others (including what remain of Intel).

  7. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
    Holmes

    Ah, just a thought. Thunderbolt.

    Intel has Thunderbolt tied up tightly in patents, with Apple the only non-Intel manufacturer able to use it as they were part of the original development.

    Thunderbolt would be a useful acquisition to add to the Snapdragon X range, perhaps?

    GJC

  8. Missing Semicolon Silver badge

    IP nightmare

    Intel's IP extends far beyond the basic tech of X86. I suspect, if QuIntel decided to do IP licensing like Qualcomm does, an awful lot of other semiconductor manufacturers would find they suddenly had lawyers and accountants knocking on their door. And, indeed, so would end-product manufacturers of any device that used any Intel IP.

    Also, wave goodbye to any innovation in the processor space for a long time.

    Whilst people argue about the immediate financial sense of Qualcomm gobbling up Intel, CEOs like Cristiano Amon would just revel in the awesome power and kudos.

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