SAN FRANCISCO — European Union regulators have for a second time put the brakes on their investigation into the proposed $38 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors by Qualcomm.
The European Commission said in a posting on its website that the investigation was suspended on Aug. 17. The Reuters news service reported Wednesday (Sept. 6) that Qualcomm and NXP failed to supply regulators with key information about the proposed merger and that the investigation would resume after the information was received.
Qualcomm (San Diego) announced last October the deal, valued at about $38 billion, to acquire NXP (Eindhoven, the Netherlands). The EU launched an investigation into the proposed acquisition in June, citing concerns into the merged entity's position in NFC, mobile devices and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure technology.
The suspension marks the second time that EC regulators have paused the investigation to await documents from the firms. They also suspended the acquisition in June, shortly after it began.
The deadline for regulators to conclude their investigation is Oct. 17. According to the Reuters report, the EC will specify a new target date for completion of the investigation once they receive the requested information.
Analysts do not generally believe that there is much danger that the acquisition will be nixed by regulators. The two companies' product portfolios generally speaking have very little overlap, and the deal has already received a green light from regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Neither the EC website or the Reuters report specified what information the regulators are waiting for. Both Qualcomm and NXP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the issue by EE Times.
—Dylan McGrath is the editor-in-chief of EE Times.
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