Apple confirms acquisition of Intel's smartphone modem business

Apple just announced that it has signed an agreement with Intel to acquire a majority of the latter's smartphone modem business.

The deal, which is valued at $1 billion (S$1.4 billion), will include the transfer of 2,200 Intel employees, intellectual property, equipment and leases to Apple.

When the deal is closed in Q4 2019, Apple is expected to own more than 17,000 wireless technology patents on protocols for cellular standards, modem architecture and modem operation.

Intel will continue to develop modems for non-smartphone applications such as PCs, IoT devices and autonomous vehicles.

We've worked with Intel for many years and know this team shares Apple's passion for designing technologies that deliver the world's best experiences for our users," said Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. "Apple is excited to have so many excellent engineers join our growing cellular technologies group, and know they'll thrive in Apple's creative and dynamic environment. They, together with our significant acquisition of innovative IP, will help expedite our development on future products and allow Apple to further differentiate moving forward.

The announcement comes two days after The Wall Street Journal reported that both companies were in "advanced talks" to acquire Intel's 5G modem business.

The acquisition is likely to save "years of development work" for Apple as it would have taken at least five years for the iPhone maker to deploy its own 5G modems.

It will also help reduce Apple's reliance on Qualcomm for radio modems, better integrate the modems with its products and develop new features to differentiate from the competition.

The article was first published in Hardware Zone.