Apple Confirms Acquisition of “Much” of Intel's Smartphone Modem Business [atualizado: meta para 2021]

Apple has just confirmed that it is actually buying much of the smartphone modem business from Apple. Intel, months after reaching a court settlement with Qualcomm. The news was already awaited a few days ago.

With the agreement, about 2,200 (!) Employees from Intel will work for Apple. She is also incorporating into her portfolio a wide range of intellectual properties, equipments and rents from Intel.

The transaction, as expected, involves a payment of about $ 1 billion Intel and should only be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019. Like any major deal of this magnitude, it will still be subject to regulatory approvals.

Apple claims that with this investment it will have a portfolio of over 17,000 wireless patents ranging from cell phone standards to modem architecture and operation. As we know, there are strong rumors that Ma has a large team working on their own 5G modem set to be ready by 2022.

Even with this sale, Intel will retain its ability to develop modems for applications that do not concern smartphones such as PCs, IoT-focused devices and even standalone vehicles.

Here's a statement from Bob swan, CEO of Intel:

This agreement allows us to focus on developing technologies for the 5G network while maintaining critical intellectual properties and modem technologies that our team has created. We have always respected Apple and are confident that they will provide the right environment for this talented team and this important portfolio in the future. We are excited to put all our efforts into 5G where it best aligns with the needs of our customer base, including network operators, telecom equipment manufacturers and cloud service providers.

And one of Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies:

We have worked with Intel for many years and we know this team shares Apple's passion for designing technologies that deliver the best experience in the world to our users. Apple is pleased to have so many great engineers joining our growing group of mobile technologies, and we know they will shine in Apple's creative and dynamic environment. Together with our significant acquisition of innovative intellectual properties, they will help accelerate our future product development and enable Apple to continue to further differentiate itself in the future.

Certainly a deal for both of them.

Update 7/26/2019 8:08 AM

In a story about the acquisition, the Reuters pointed out that this second largest purchase in value in Apple's story only loses to Beats in 2014, which cost him $ 3 billion.

News agency sources also say that with this deal, Apple now wants to have its own 5G modems ready for use in some early products. until 2021.

Obviously, a future transition from Qualcomm modems to hers will have to be quite gradual and should take a few years. We even discussed exactly that in on Air # 332, podcast that will be published by the end of the day today.