With the direct intervention of President Trump, Qualcomm withstood a hostile takeover attempt waged by rival Broadcom, but the San Diego, Calif.-based chipmaker is still very much at a transition point–Looking to diversify its vertical focus, Qualcomm is pushing reluctant NXP shareholders for an acquisition; years of R&D into standard-essential 5G technologies is on the cusp of paying off; and major buyer Apple wants the court system to weigh-in on how Qualcomm calculates the price of its intellectual property used in building iPhones.
NXP, based in The Netherlands, specializes in automotive, security and internet of things (IoT) silicon solutions.