Qualcomm Acquires Atheros for $3.1 billion

The worlds of cellular and Wi-Fi communications are about to get a whole lot closer. Mobile silicon technology vendor Qualcomm announced its intention to acquire Wi-Fi silicon vendor Atheros in a deal valued at $3.1 billion.

Qualcomm will pay $45 for each Atheros share and the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2011. With the acquisition of Atheros, Qualcomm adds extensive local wireless connectivity technologies including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The acquisition serves to highlight the continuing convergence of wide and local area wireless networking technologies as mobile devices continue to proliferate. Qualcomm is seeing a trend emerge where cellular, computing and consumer electronics mobility are beginning to converge. Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice-president and group president of Qualcomm, noted that with tablets, vendors have been pulling in technologies from both the PC and cellular worlds. He added that with a tablet there are more things that a user needs to be able to connect with, than what a phone typically connects to.