Rumor: Intel to Take 20% Stake in Mobile Chipmaker Spreadtrum
Tencent Tech, 9/24/14
According to an industry source, US tech company Intel will soon announce the purchase of a 20% stake in Chinese wireless baseband chipset provider Spreadtrum Communications for USD 1.5 bln. The deal may see Intel transfer a part of its PC components line to Spreadtrum.
Tsinghua Unigroup, an operating subsidiary of Tsinghua Holdings, a solely state-owned limited liability corporation funded by Tsinghua University in China, completed its purchase of Spreadtrum in December 2013.
Editor's Note: Both Spreadtrum and Shanghai-based handset chip maker RDA Microelectronics were privatized within the last year, delisting from the Nasdaq and merging into acquirer Tsinghua Unigroup. The Unigroup acquisitions are part of a plan to develop a homegrown handset chip company in China that can compete globally with the likes of US chip maker Qualcomm. Minority investment from and cooperation with Intel would provide a strong boost to Unigroup in its efforts to achieve this goal. For more background on this topic, please see "Tsinghua Unigroup Completes Acquisition of Spreadtrum" MD 12/23/13 issue, and "Tsinghua Unigroup Closes USD 907 Mln Acquisition of RDA," MD 7/19/14 issue.
Keywords: hardware Spreadtrum Intel Tsinghua University Tsinghua Holdings Tsinghua Unigroup M&A handset chip chipmaker wireless