Tag: Qualcomm

Qualcomm shares dip as China sales stall

Posted on February 1, 2024 by - News

Chip maker Qualcomm has given a mixed forecast for its second-quarter profits and sales, but investors are worried about its Android sales in China.

The sales outlook shows that Qualcomm’s new chips with clever features to run chatbots, image generators and other smart things on a device instead of in the cloud are popular.

Shares went up and down in after-hours trading and were down 0.8 per cent.

Qualcomm bosses told analysts on a phone call that after making many new chips for Android phones at the end of last year, they expect chip sales in China to stay the same in the current quarter. Analysts said this means Qualcomm is losing out to rivals in China.

ARM sues Qualcomm and Nuvia

Posted on September 2, 2022 by - News

ARM has sued Qualcomm and the startup it acquired, Nuvia, claiming breach of license agreements and trademark infringement.

The 29-page complaint filed Wednesday in US District Court in Delaware said ARM, a subsidiary of Softbank Group Corp., seeks unspecified punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and an order prohibiting the use of Arm’s trademarked technology.

“Qualcomm and Nuvia have continued working on Nuvia’s implementation of ARM architecture in violation of Arm’s rights as the creator and licensor of its technology”, the lawsuit said.

Qualcomm looks to channel to push its IoT plans

Posted on August 3, 2018 by - News

Qualcomm has expanded the distribution channels for its products and now reaches more than 9,000 customers, nearly 20 times the number of customers compared to 2014, through indirect sales channels including more than 25 global distributors.

This expansion complements direct sales activities to help a broad range of customers develop new and exciting consumer and industrial IoT solutions using Qualcomm Technologies system-on-chips (SoCs), modems and connectivity solutions.

Qualcomm Technologies has made available more than 30 production-ready reference design platforms through a network of original design manufacturers (ODMs) for products including voice-enabled home hubs and smart displays, smart speakers, connected cameras, appliances, smart watches and more – all as part of Qualcomm Technologies’ core strategy of driving its technologies into higher growth industries.

Cristiano Amon, president, Qualcomm said: “The strategy we set a few years back of taking our leading-edge technologies into growth opportunities is delivering results. We expect IoT revenues in excess of $1 billion this fiscal year after solid double-digit growth over the last couple of years, driven by our ability to reuse our investments and R&D in mobile technology to make this a very healthy business.”

 

Intel considers buying Broadcom

Posted on March 13, 2018 by - News

wintel_blimp_featureChipzilla has been looking at the numbers and is mulling over taking over Broadcom, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The paper also speculated that Intel’s acquisition plans around Broadcom could be motivated by its fears of the major market player a Broadcom-Qualcomm merger would create.

The combined player would create a powerhouse in smartphones and datacentres – areas Intel has ear-marked for future growth.

Qualcomm’s purchase of Dutch automotive chip specialist NXP Semiconductors NV would strengthen its presence in the automotive market, which is an area where Intel wants to be.

Former Apple head and blogger Jean-Louis Gassée thinks that Intel has realised that it needs a seat at the smartphone table.

“Despite troubles with its more advanced manufacturing processes, the company managed to supply some wireless modems for the iPhone 7, 8 and X. Ironically, the alliance was aided by a long-standing and bitter intellectual property dispute between Apple and Qualcomm. If Broadcom’s acquisition of Qualcomm proceeds, the dispute with Apple could disappear”, said Gassée.

“If the dispute is settled, Intel loses its wireless modems deal with Apple. No mobile CPUs plus no modems equal nothing of substance. Broadcom would be in charge – it would hold all the cards. Is it any wonder that Intel wants to find ways to scupper the deal?” Gassée added.

Qualcomm insists on more cash from Broadcom

Posted on November 24, 2017 by - News

the-highwaymanQualcomm is insisting on an extra $10 a share from chipmaker giant Broadcom, before it even looks at the takeover bid.

Qualcomm rejected Broadcom’s $70 a share offer as grossly underestimating the company value, however the mega-merger will go ahead, if Broadcom coughs up more cash.  Word on the street is that if Broadcom offered $80 then Qualcomm might take it more seriously.

Daniel O’Keefe, a fund manager of the $3.1 billion Artisan Global Value Fund, which owns Qualcomm stock, told Bloomberg: “We would be very interested in evaluating an offer that begins with an 8. The board should urge Broadcom to come back with a higher bid.”

Broadcom’s offer came with valuation of $70 per share for Qualcomm. That’s down from its five year high of $81.6 in mid-2014.

However, in more recent years Qualcomm has gone through some turbulence, which has decreased the value of its shares to below $70.

Looming large over the firm is an ongoing legal battle with Apple and regulatory actions around the world, threatening its licensing business, which accounted for $5.1 billion of Qualcomm’s pre-tax profits in its fiscal 2017.

Qualcomm spurns Broadcom takeover

Posted on November 15, 2017 by - News

rejection-2Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm rejected rival Broadcom $103-billion takeover bid, claiming that the offer undervalued the company and would face regulatory hurdles.

Broadcom said it would seek to engage with Qualcomm’s board and management, adding that it had received positive feedback from key customers and stockholders.

“We continue to believe our proposal represents the most attractive, value-enhancing alternative available to Qualcomm stockholders and we are encouraged by their reaction”,  the company said.

Broadcom made an unsolicited bid to buy Qualcomm in an effort to become the dominant supplier of chips used in the 1.5 billion or so smartphones expected to be sold around the world this year.

Analysts said Broadcom can now raise its bid, go for a proxy fight or launch a hostile exchange offer.

If Broadcom makes a hostile bid, Qualcomm’s governance rules would allow the rival to submit its own slate for the entire 11-member board by the December 8 nomination deadline.

However it would be easier to talk Qualcomm’s board and agree on a higher price.

But price is not the only issue. Any deal would face scrutiny from the antitrust regulators as the combined company would own the high-end WiFi business globally, analysts said.

Regulators are already scrutinizing Qualcomm’s $38-billion acquisition of automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV.

Broadcom has indicated it is willing to buy Qualcomm irrespective of whether it closes the NXP deal.

 

Broadcom snaps at Snapdragon maker Qualcomm

Posted on November 7, 2017 by - News

qualcomm-snapdragonThe dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn that semiconductor vendor Broadcom is on the verge of making a $130 billion grab for rival chip maker Qualcomm.

If it goes through, it would be the the largest technology takeover in history and Broadcom is said to be readying an assault on publicly listed Qualcomm and planning to offer shareholders $70 a share.

Bloomberg claimed that the Qualcomm board is likely to advise shareholders to reject the deal, pointing out that the  potential deal could run into regulatory problems.

Broadcom is in the process of closing its $5.5 billion acquisition of Brocade, while Qualcomm is struggling through regulatory scrutiny to complete its $38bn deal for Dutch semiconductor vendor NXP.

The Financial Times is reporting that Broadcom wants NXP, as well as Qualcomm.

Qualcomm’s share price rose as much as 14 percent when the news broke.

Broadcom and Qualcomm have confirmed the offer, with Broadcom disclosing that the bid of $70 a share is made up of $60 cash and $10 in Broadcom shares. The overall deal is valued at $130bn.

Broadcom also said that its offer stands regardless of whether the NXP deal goes through or is terminated.

Qualcomm said its board of directors is currently reviewing the offer.

GNSS chip market will grow

Posted on July 20, 2017 by - News

growBeancounters at TMR, the global GNSS said the chip market is slated to expand at 7.7 percent each year  during  2017 and 2025 to reach a value of US$34.71 billion by 2025 from US$ 17.90 billion in 2016.

In terms of volume, the report forecasts the market to expand at a CAGR of 8.7 percent to become worth 9.16 billion units by 2025 from 4.31 billion units in 2016.

Some of the big names operating in the global navigational satellite system (GNSS) chip market are Qualcomm, ST Microelectronics, Mediatek ., U-Blox, Intel , Furuno Electric,  Broadcom and Quectel Wireless. Currently the market is fragmented with no player having a solid stronghold.

The global GNSS chip market can be segmented depending upon the type of devices into in-vehicle networking systems, smart phones, and personal navigational devices, among others such as smart wearable devices, including smart watches, smart glasses, smart rings, etc. In terms of growth rate, the in-vehicle networking systems is expected to outshine all other segments with a CAGR of 10.5 percent, vis-à-vis value, in the years to come, because of the rising connectivity in vehicles for bettering both driving experience and safety.

Based on geography, the key segments of the global GNSS chip market are North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. Of them, North America, at present, holds a dominant share both in terms of value and volume and in the upcoming years too is predicted to maintain its leading position. This is because most of the prominent manufacturers of GNSS chips are based out of North America. The market in the region is slated to be worth $10.22 billion by 2025.

 

 

Qualcomm sells UK spectrum

Posted on August 26, 2015 by - News

LPSpectrumChipmaker Qualcomm has sold  its UK spectrum rights to Vodafone and CK Hutchison Holdings for $313.8 million.

This is not bad really because the company paid only £8.3 million at auction in 2008 so it certainly got more than its money back.

The deal is subject to approval by communications regulator Ofcom.

Qualcomm in June announced that it was putting a chunk of spectrum up for sale in Britain, which could appeal to mobile operators grappling with demand for Internet access.

The chipmaker said in July it might break itself up as it delivered its third profit warning this year and said it planned to slash jobs and spending in a competitive environment.

When Qualcomm bought the spectrum it was believed to be a way to roll out its MediaFLO, the mobile TV broadcast system, a rival to DVB-H. But the mobile TV standards proved to be dismal failures Qualcomm didn’t have any use for the substantial chunk of spectrum.

 

EU quizzes Qualcomm rivals about evil

Posted on May 11, 2015 by - News

movies-60-years-of-bond-gallery-7EU antitrust regulators have sent a questionnaire to Qualcomm’s rivals asking if it has been committing any atrocities over the way it licenses products.

Qualcomm has been feeling the regulatory heat in Europe, the United States, China, Japan and South Korea in recent years as watchdogs focus on its licensing model and its power over patents.

The bulk of its revenue comes from selling baseband chips, which let phones communicate with carrier networks, but a large portion of its profit comes from licensing patents for its CDMA mobile technology.

The European Commission told Qualcomm last year that it was investigating the way it sells and marketed chips and its rebates and financial incentives offered to customers.

The EU competition authority asked about the impact of various Qualcomm practices such as pass-through rights where phone makers are allowed to use patents already licensed by Qualcomm.

It also wanted to know how they feel about cross-licences and mutual non-assertion provisions in which companies agree not to enforce patent rights against each other.

Recipients of the document of more than 40 questions have until mid-May to respond.

A Commission spokeswoman declined to comment and Qualcomm had no immediate comment.

This is one of two EU inquiries into the company. The other probe, begun in 2010, was triggered by a complaint from British cell phone chipmaker Icera, a subsidiary of Nvidia, about rebates and financial incentives.

 

Qualcomm to outsource Snapdragon to Samsung

Posted on April 2, 2015 by - News

qualcomm-snapdragonUS chipmaker Qualcomm is going to outsource the production of its new Snapdragon 820, to Samsung so ti can take advantage of its 14nm node process.

Samsung has demonstrated its 14nm as a proven process as showcased by the performance and power consumption of its14nm EXynos 7420 CPU developed in house.

Digitimes Research thinks that since Samsung has also been aggressively striving for orders with competitive pricing, other players such as Nvidia, AMD and MediaTek are believed to have a high chance of shifting part of their orders to Samsung.

It warns that this could affect the global mobile AP market in 2015 and 2016.

Qualcomm was forced to accelerate the roadmap of its mobile AP following a mishap of the Snapdragon 810 and is also being pushed to fabricate its Snapdragon 820 via Samsung’s 14nm process as the development of a similar advanced 16nm process by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacture Company (TSMC) is currently lagging Samsung’s 14nm node by about one quarter.

With Samsung shifting to use in-house developed APs for its high-end models such as the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 instead of Qualcomm’s APs, Qualcomm is expected to see its high-end AP shipments halve to 100 million units in 2015. As a result, the Snapdragon 820 might be used as a bargain chip persuading Samsung to purchase more of its high-end Snapdragon chips.

Qualcomm is likely to outsource up to half of the Snapdragon 820 chips to Samsung in 2016, attracting other chip suppliers to follow suit.

Windows 10: Summer is a coming in

Posted on March 18, 2015 by - News

windows-10-technical-preview-turquoiseWe’ve already written how Microsoft is to give away Windows 10 to Chinese users but senior VP Terry Myers has revealed other elements that he hopes will give his company an edge on the operating systems front.

Speaking at a Windows technical conference in China, Myers said the firm will roll Windows 10 out this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages.

He showed off a feature called Windows Hello that supports biometric authentication rather than the usual typed in passwords. Hello will use facial recognition, iris recognition or fingerprints to unlock devices using the Intel RealSense F200 sensor.

He also said there will be a new version of Windows specifically aimed at the internet of things (IoT) market – and that version of Windows will be free and see applications in ATMs, ultrasound machines, and gateways.

Microsoft has signed deals with a number of organisations including the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Qualcomm, Intel and others.

Myerson also announced the Qualcomm DragonBoard 410C which is a Windows 10 developer board with integrated wi-fi, Bluetooth and GPS, and uses a smartphone style Snapdragon 410 chipset.

He claimed that Windows 10 is the only operating system that has a reach across such a broad family of hardware.

 

Freescale-NXP merger challenges the giants

Posted on March 18, 2015 by - News

renesas-chips (1)The proposed merger of Freescale and NXP will result in a semiconductor company that challenges the giants.

That’s according to chief analyst Dale Ford at IHS, who said the merged entity will be in the top 10 semiconductor companies in the world, outranking other giants such as Broadcom and ST Microelectronics.

He said the strength of uniting Freescale and NXP will be shown in automotive applications particularly.

NXP, formerly the semiconductor division of Dutch giant Philips, used to compete in the same market, said Ford.

But the new top 10 will look fundamentally different. By revenues, Intel will remain number one with 14.14 percent, followed by Samsung, Qualcomm, SK Hynix, US DRAM firm Micron, Texas Instruments and Toshiba.

The merged company will be second place in the micro controller market, and it will also have significant share in the digital signal processing (DSP) market, much used in consumer applications.

IHS noted in its report that Freescale is practically an exclusive source for power architecture processors – and although its share in this market is tiny compared to ARM and X86 semiconductors, it has big wins in the military aerospace market.

Qualcomm gives fingers for ultra-security

Posted on March 13, 2015 by - News

Churchill-first-V-signQualcomm has announced details of its Ultrasonic Finger Print Reader which is part of its  new Snapdragon processor.

The idea is that the tech can be used by smartphone ODMs and OEMs to provide ultrasecurity for their phones.

Qualcomm’s tech uses ultrasonic waves to scan all of the ridges and wrinkles of your fingers. This means that it can do a deeper analysis than the 2D image created by a fingerprint mashed up against a capacitive sensor.

It can also penetrate beneath the surface of your skin to identify unique 3D characteristics of your print.

Ultrasonic waves can go through glass, aluminum, steel and plastic housings of any phone, they don’t need a dedicated touch pad or button to work. You could conceivably touch any part of the smartphone with a finger to gain access to the phone itself.

While many might see the technology as a stab in the eye of Apple, which uses the old style of fingerprint technology. Qualcomm’s major competitor is MediaTek, whose processors and related technology are used in millions of phones, especially in China and areas where low cost smartphones are selling well.

Qualcomm’s new Ultrasound fingerprint reader means it has a weapon to counter MediaTek.

The thought is that this could win Qualcomm a lot of business.