SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Apple agreed Thursday to pay $1
billion to acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business, a move
giving the iPhone maker more control over its supply chain.
As part of the deal, some 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple, which will
acquire intellectual property, equipment and leases.
Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, said
the move “will help expedite our development on future products and allow
Apple to further differentiate moving forward.”
Intel chief executive Bob Swan said the deal “enables us to focus on
developing technology for the 5G network while retaining critical
intellectual property and modem technology that our team has created.”
Apple has been investing in its own mobile chips to ramp up performance and
features in its devices and reduce its dependence on sector leader Qualcomm.
Intel earlier this year announced it was abandoning efforts to compete with
modem chips for smartphones synched to new-generation “5G” networks.
Apple has accused Qualcomm, which holds the most patents for chips, of
taking advantage of its dominant position to charge exorbitant amounts for
its chips or access to its patents. But the two firms later agreed to settle
their legal disputes.