The European Commission and the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) have authorized the acquisition of NXP Semiconductors by Qualcomm. The acquisition has now received 8 of the 9 approvals from around the world, with China remaining.
Qualcomm cooperated with the Commission and the KFTC and agreed to all conditions required by the agencies to obtain their authorization.They committed to exclude certain near-field communication (NFC) patents from the proposed transaction and ensure that NXP licenses those patents to third parties. The company also committed not to assert the NFC patents it will acquire from NXP and maintain interoperability between Qualcomm’s baseband chipsets and NXP’s NFC chips and rivals baseband chipsets and NFC chips. Qualcomm will also continue to offer a license to MIFARE on terms commensurate with those offered by NXP today. MIFARE is NXP’s well-known brand for a wide range of contactless IC products with a typical read/write distance of 10 cm (4 inch).
