The Wall Street Journal says that Qualcomm had approached Intel about purchasing the chip company.
A report in the Wall Street Journal, if it turns out to be true, has the potential to potentially lead to some changes in the smartphone supply chain. According to the report, fabless chip designer Qualcomm is said to be interested in acquiring Intel and approached the company about a deal. With a market value of over $93 billion, an acquisition by Qualcomm will certainly go over the $100 billion mark. Qualcomm might have to have some of Intel’s assets already sold in order to afford this deal.
Intel’s shares are down a whopping 54% this year while Qualcomm’s shares are up 20.5% for the year-to-date. Qualcomm, headquartered in San Diego, is what is known as a fabless chip designer which means that it has to turn to a third-party foundry in order to have its chips made since it doesn’t own any fabrication facilities. In the past Qualcomm has turned to third party foundries such as TSMC and Samsung Foundry to build its Snapdragon components.
At one time, Intel was the most valuable chipmaker in the world. On Friday, following the release of the WSJ report that mentioned Qualcomm’s interest in Intel, the latter’s stock popped just before the 4 pm EDT close to finish the week at $21.
