Broadcom Bids To Snatch Qualcomm For $103 Billion

[dh04000]

So, what do we think the new name will be? Broadcomm? Qualcom?

Heh.

ComComm

[aht0]

So, what do we think the new name will be? Broadcomm? Qualcom?

Heh.

Broadcom. It's buying and going to "eat it up", not merging.

Nothing good comes out of it for OSS.

[oleyska]

Broadcom. It's buying and going to "eat it up", not merging.

Nothing good comes out of it for OSS.

I've seen both.
As the larger stuff gets it's harder to support so they have to have better communities.
Or they create a closed little world with their frame work.

Either or it seems so it's anyone's bet.

[schmidtbag]

I'm not really sure I understand why Broadcom wants Qualcomm. I can't imagine Qualcomm has IP that Broadcom wants/needs. Their CPUs are basically the same (though they seem to target different markets). Both companies have good GPUs so I'm not sure what they'd do: If they continue to develop both GPUs in parallel, that seems like an unnecessary expense. But if they merge the two designs, I can't imagine that would yield results worth $100+ billion. To my knowledge, the rest of the SoCs aren't noteworthy.


EDIT:
There is some good that could come out of this for the Linux community. Currently, there aren't many Qualcomm development boards, and I'm not aware of any [modern] Linux-friendly laptops or tablets, either. I'm not sure why this is, perhaps licensing issues? Meanwhile, there are a lot of Broadcom products used by Linux users, so if this bid comes to fruition, we might start seeing more Qualcomm-like products appealing to Linux users.

[wdb974]

Broadcom? Ugh. That names evokes closed source to me. That and a bluetooth adapter that had fully functional drivers only when I had upgraded form XP to 7 (and I'll let you guess whether or not they had updated their Windows 7 driver by then).

[KellyClowers]

I'm not really sure I understand why Broadcom wants Qualcomm. I can't imagine Qualcomm has IP that Broadcom wants/needs. Their CPUs are basically the same (though they seem to target different markets). Both companies have good GPUs so I'm not sure what they'd do: If they continue to develop both GPUs in parallel, that seems like an unnecessary expense. But if they merge the two designs, I can't imagine that would yield results worth $100+ billion. To my knowledge, the rest of the SoCs aren't noteworthy.

Qualcomm has a huge array of patents, I am sure there are things in there that Broadcom would want. VideoCore to my knowledge can't compete at the top end with Adreno. And bc may have some A57 chips and such, but when was the last time you saw one of their CPUs in phone? And qc has the whole LTE modem thing going on.

[torpcoms]

This sounds like it would prevent any hope of officially open-source ath10k firmware. The Qualcomm Atheros subdivision [has released open-source firmware](https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...tem&px=MTMyNTY) in the past; I don't see a single driver with open firmware from Broadcom.

Anyone know anything different?

[microcode]

Seems like a Broadcom acquisition would upset Qualcomm's NXP acquisition, so really there's no actual consolidation here in the SoC market. Broadcom does not design CPUs, they do technically design GPUs but they suck and you probably wouldn't want them anyway. Broadcom makes WiFi modems/radios, and so does Qualcomm Atheros, that's one thing that could merge, but there's still Realtek and Intel for that. Broadcom does not make LTE modems, Qualcomm is basically already in a (natural) monopoly position there.

All in all, I don't think that this will give them all that much more leverage on pricing. IMHO people are overestimating the risks.

[thelongdivider]

Is anyone else really surprised about this? I always assumed Qualcomm was a much larger company than Broadcomm. Regardless, I really wish I could get Broadcomm wireless chips working on my old laptops...

[schmidtbag]

Qualcomm has a huge array of patents, I am sure there are things in there that Broadcom would want. VideoCore to my knowledge can't compete at the top end with Adreno. And bc may have some A57 chips and such, but when was the last time you saw one of their CPUs in phone? And qc has the whole LTE modem thing going on.

Adreno is definitely better, but I'm not sure if Broadcom customers demand more out of VideoCore. And sure, Broadcom isn't usually found in phones, but like I said before, they are found in other industries (like embedded devices). I guess what I'm getting at is it doesn't seem like both companies ever step on each other's feet. $103 billion is no small purchase - I'm sure it will take a while to pay off that bid, and there are the expenses of dealing with the newly acquired assets. Qualcomm has a lot of competitors in the phone market, so it's not like buying them out grants Broadcom a cash cow. It just seems like too much of an expense for just a few patents, and a market that Broadcom could get into if they put more effort into it. I'm sure it costs less than $100 billion to make a competitive phone derived from their current products.