Sam OliverIntel announced on Monday that it had agreed to buy the wireless division of Infineon for $1.4 billion. Infineon makes the baseband chip found in the iPhone, and has supplied chipsets for Apple's handsets since 2007.
On Monday, Paul Otellini spoke with Fox Business and was asked by Liz Claman how Apple feels about Intel's acquisition of Infineon. Otellini said he personally spoke with Jobs, and the Apple co-founder believed the deal was a smart move.
"Steve was very happy... The industry was abuzz that this business unit was on the market, and there were a number of competing companies for it," he said. "I think they're very happy that Intel won the bid."
He said having a presence in the iPhone, however, was not the "overwhelming factor" in the deal. He said the chips have a good revenue stream and Intel believes the wireless technology capabilities will strengthen Intel's portfolio.
While Otellini's comments were positive this week, in the past his company has ridiculed Apple for relying on the ARM architecture to power its mobile devices. The company, in the past, publicly slammed the iPhone, stating that the device is not capable of accessing the "full Internet," and asserting that such functionality requires Intel-based architecture.
In addition to giving Intel a presence in the iPhone, the Infineon deal will also place the company, through its newly acquired products, inside the 3G-capable iPad. Years ago it was rumored that the chipmaker's low-power Atom processor could eventually make its way into the iPad, though that never came to be.
Instead, Apple decided it would make its own moves in the chipmaking business, through key acquisitions of PA Semi for $278 million in 2008, and Intrinsity this year for $121 million. Those purchases set the stage for Apple to build the custom A4 processor, based on the ARM architecture, found in the iPad and iPhone 4.
-m.jpg)
Amber Neely
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
-m.jpg)
27 Comments
Otellini taking audience with Steve before making a deal? Murdoch inking a deal he apparently doesn’t like just to win favour with Jobs? This makes jobs sound more like the head of the Mafia than just a savvy business man… but I guess there isn’t much difference when you think about it. Did they kiss his Apple ring and rub the transplant scar of a Jobs idol, too?
intel no matter what happens wins
9
Otellini taking audience with Steve before making a deal? Murdoch inking he a deal he doesn’t like just to win favour with Jobs? This makes jobs sound more like the head of the Mafia than just a savvy business man… but I guess there isn’t much difference when you think about it. Did they kiss his ring and rub the of the transplant scar of a Jobs idol, too?
intel no matter what happens wins
9
I wish the damn stock would move, though.... I am tired of it going sideways forever (and McAfee was a puzzling and inexcusable waste of shareholder money).
Good job with AI referring to Otellini by his last name only, before ever mentioning his first name. I guess that's the sort of stuff that happens when "jounalism" consists of copying and pasting entire chunks of articles from other sources. Can we just call this site a news aggregator, and get it out in the open?
I didn't think they would actually bag this bid. But they did it. Let's see what happens. Hopefully this time around that have the pieces to actually make a great dive in to the wireless biz. What do you guys think?