Apple looked at Intel's 5G business: WSJ
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., speaks during an event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, USA, Monday, March 25, 2019.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple was involved in discussions to buy Intel's modem chip division, Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The deal would have been as much as a "few billion dollars", but talks stopped recently, according to the report.
The news emphasizes Apple's increased willingness to consider making large multi-billion acquisitions with significant cash flow. It also has over $ 245 billion in cash, cash equivalents and traded securities on the balance sheet.
Apple's largest historic acquisition was Beats Electronics and Beats Music in 201[ads1]4 for $ 2.6 billion.
Currently, Intel is providing LTE modems for Apple's current generation of iPhones. But Qualcomm's modem chips are widely considered superior, and Apple said it would buy Qualcomm chips again after a bitter legal battle between the two companies was settled last week.
The hours after the settlement, Intel announced that it would no longer develop its next-generation 5G modem chip.
"In light of Apple and Qualcomm's advertising, we considered the prospect of making money while delivering this smartphone technology and concluding that we didn't see a road," Intel CEO Bob Swan told Wall Street Journal.
Apple and Intel refused to comment.
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