Jul. 26, 2018 –
According to reports in various business media, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf throws in the towel and gives up the intention to acquire Dutch semiconductor manufacturer NXP for around $44 billion. This could be seen in various business media. However, confirmation by the two semiconductor companies is still pending at the time of publication of this news.
Instead of the planned acquisition, Qualcomm intends to buy back its own shares for $30 billion. Under previous agreements, the company will have to pay NXP 2 billion dollars with the withdrawal.
The deal is seen as a victim of the trade war between the US and China, the two largest economies in the world. The acquisition was not cleared by the Chinese competition authorities after the other eight markets had given their approval. However, as a countermeasure to the US handling of ZTE, they had not yet given permission for the Qualcomm NXP deal; the deadline expires today.