It's a move that has been rumoured for weeks, but it wasn't until this week that Intel made it official: the spending spree continues, with the company buying Infineon's wireless division for $1.4 billion.
According to
The New York Times, the acquisition - announced officially by Intel head Paul Otellini yesterday following weeks of rumours and speculation by industry watchers - will give Intel's wireless technologies a boost, and mean that the company's chips form part of Apple's successful iPad - although not, to Intel's chagrin, the CPU.
The move comes mere weeks after Intel spent a whopping $7.68 billion
buying security specialist McAfee and a further - undisclosed - sum on Texas Instruments' cable modem division, bringing the total value of Intel's acquisitions to over $9 billion in August alone.
Speaking to Fox Business and transcribed over on
VentureBeat, Otellini claimed that the decision to purchase Infineon came about due to "
the technology they have today, the customer connections they have today, and where the technology in general is going," and explained that Intel's plan is to work towards "
a period in the not so distant future where all of these [wireless] functions can be [built] on a single chip."
While Otellini hasn't announced an Atom processor with integrated wireless technology
yet, the possibility is there - albeit "
farther down the road."
The deal is expected to complete early next year, pending regulatory approval, after which we'll start seeing Infineon technologies - including LTE mobile broadband connectivity chips - appearing alongside Intel's existing mobile chips.
Are you pleased to see Intel looking to expand its wireless know-how, or has Otellini gone spend-happy in an industry that's still trying to claw its way out of the credit crunch? Share your thoughts over
in the forums.
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