To anyone between 30 and 50 years old today, this news seems completely unbelievable. For three decades, absolutely no one has considered buying a giant like Intel. In any case, it was Intel who could consider buying whoever they wanted.
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Subscribe (it's FREE) ►In the world of semiconductors, no one has had a greater market share and purchasing power. Neither AMD, Nvidia, nor IBM, in their best times, have had the power that Intel amassed between the 90s and 2020. But all empires and all companies falter at some point.
Several media outlets report that Qualcomm has reached out to Intel for a possible acquisition, showing that the era of acquisitions is not over.
Qualcomm, the ARM chip giant, wants to buy Intel
The Intel-Qualcomm acquisition attempt seems to have taken a new turn today after several prominent media outlets, especially The Wall Street Journal, reported on this particular issue, demonstrating that the matter is far from being resolved.
For those who don’t know, the rumors surrounding Qualcomm’s purchase of Intel initially broke out when it was said that the chip manufacturer was trying to buy some elements of Team Blue’s chip business, probably the design division, but after that, the rumor ended up shaping into a complete acquisition.
Now, WSJ reports that Qualcomm approached Intel with the acquisition offer, and the company’s CEO, Cristiano Amon, was directly involved in the negotiations.
The purpose of the meeting was to reach an agreement with Intel, whether a total acquisition or even the purchase of some aspects of the company. It is important to note that no formal progress has been made yet. If we look at the big picture, the acquisition of Intel by Qualcomm seems far from happening, although markets can sometimes be unpredictable.
The acquisition of Intel by Qualcomm would require enormous financial resources, given that Intel is currently valued at $98 billion, which is a considerable sum to pay for a chip manufacturer that has just entered the Windows PC market.
An analysis by Ming-Chi Kuo stated that Qualcomm currently has $13 billion in cash and a market capitalization of $190 billion, so acquiring Intel will not be an easy task.
The other important factor is Intel’s strategic importance to the US, and given the close relations the two sides have maintained in recent years, the US will not allow a direct acquisition of a company like Qualcomm unless the administration itself favors such a move.
Not to mention the regulatory issues that Qualcomm will have to face if it manages to acquire Intel by any means, so from a broader perspective, the acquisition deal is a path full of obstacles that does not favor Qualcomm.
