Qualcomm Scoops Up AMD Handheld Division

In a bid to expand its graphics and multimedia offerings, Qualcomm this week acquired the handheld division of chip maker AMD.

According to Qualcomm, the $65 million acquisition boosts its multimedia capabilities and will enable Qualcomm to deliver more advanced products that "redefine next-generation mobile user experiences" by adding a new set of graphics and multimedia technology assets, intellectual property and resources.

"This acquisition of assets from AMD's handheld business brings us strong multimedia technologies, including graphics cores that we have been licensing for several years," said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, in a statement. "Bringing this technology in-house creates even greater synergy as we seamlessly integrate the best-in-class multimedia performance AMD offers into our system-on-chip (SoC) products."

Under the terms of the deal, Qualcomm has offered employment to various design and development teams involved in AMD's handheld business, including teams developing mobile devices in areas including 2-D and 3-D graphics, audio/video, display and architecture.

Qualcomm and AMD signed and closed the binding agreement on Monday and had already received the required regulatory approvals.

"With the sale of these handheld technology assets and resources to Qualcomm, we are better able to focus on our core business and leverage our unique position as a leader in both x86 computing and high-end graphics," said Robert J. Rivet, chief operations and administrative officer and CFO of AMD. "We believe the talented AMD handheld employees will be a great asset to Qualcomm."

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