Qualcomm Buys WiFi Startup And RF's Bluetooth Assets to Take On Intel

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Qualcomm to Buy Chip Businesses [Wall Street Journal]

Summary: Wireless chipmaker Qualcomm is buying WiFi startup Airgo Networks and the key Bluetooth units of RF Micro Devices in an effort to expand its reach to those markets. The goal is "to offer broadband wireless data service wherever you go," according to Sanjay Jha, president of Qualcomm's CDMA technologies group. In its core handheld market, Qualcomm finds itself in a battle against Intel for broadband wireless standards, with Intel promoting a technology called WiMAX that challenges Qualcomm's EV-DO. The purchase of Airgo gives Qualcomm a foothold in Wi-Fi that aligns it firmly against Intel, which has long promoted that local network technology and plans to integrate it with WiMAX.
Related links: Press release Media coverage: Reuters , AP. Commentary: Qualcomm's Empire Is Under Siege, Cell Phone Makers: Nokia May Run, But Qualcomm's On An End Run, In WiMax, It's Qualcomm vs. The World . Conference call transcripts: QUALCOMM F4Q06, .
Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Qualcomm (QCOM), RF Micro (RFMD), Intel (INTC), Broadcom (BRCM) • ETFs:

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