Monday, June 25, 2012, 1:40 PM
Spreadtrum (SPRD -5.4%) and Broadcom (BRCM -5.5%) underperform on an ugly day for chip stocks (SOXX -2.9%) after MediaTek agrees to buy fellow Taiwanese chipmaker MStar for $3.8B. MediaTek and Spreadtrum are fierce competitors in the Chinese mobile baseband chip market, and Broadcom competes with MediaTek in both the baseband and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth "combo chip" markets. MStar also sells plenty of mobile chips, and that could be heightening competitive concerns.
2 Comments[Tech, On the Move, M&A]
Monday, March 26, 2012, 4:46 PM
Communications chipmaker RDA Microleectronics (RDA) has acquired the baseband chip IP of Chinese peer Coolsand Holding for $46M ($20M cash + $26M stock). The acquisition, which complements RDA's mobile phone RF chip business, could lead to additional competition for Spreadtrum (SPRD) and MediaTek, who have heavy exposure to the low-end/2G Chinese phone market.
Comment![Tech, M&A]
Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 7:57 AM
Chinese wireless chipmaker Spreadtrum (SPRD) is acquiring Telegent, a maker of broadcast TV receiver chips for mobile phones. While mobile TV never took off in the U.S., it has gained a following in Japan and South Korea, and might also gain traction in China since it doesn't generate potentially expensive 3G data charges.
Comment![Tech, M&A]