Qualcomm expands portfolio with $3bn Atheros purchase

US chip giant Qualcomm on Wednesday agreed to snap up Atheros Communications, a wired and wireless networking technology vendor, for a total of $3.1bn in cash.

The Big Q said it will use the acquisition to expand its own stable of technologies and platforms beyond the cellular market and into the consumer electronics and enterprise spaces. Atheros has expertise in wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, Ethernet, power saving and peer to peer connectivity.

“It is Qualcomm’s strategy to continually integrate additional technologies into mobile devices to make them the primary way that people communicate, compute and access content.  This acquisition is a natural extension of that strategy into other types of devices,” said Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm.  “The combination of Qualcomm and Atheros is intended to accelerate this opportunity by utilising best-in-class products for communications, computing and consumer electronics to broaden existing customer relationships and expand access to new partners and distribution channels.”

Atheros president and CEO, Craig Barratt, is expected to join Qualcomm as president of Qualcomm Networking & Connectivity, when the transaction closes in the first half of this year.