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There's been a lot of speculation about the proposed merger of the wireless business units of ST and NXP into a new semiconductor company that can compete with the likes of Qualcomm.
One interesting aspect that hasn't gotten a lot of attention is where NXP's wireless business unit leaves off and where its identification unit starts. A lot of ID these days is RF with the best known technology being, of course, RFID.
But near-field communications (NFC) is near and dear to NXP's strategic vision. And it's clearly one technology that it wants to keep after (if and when) the JV is formed.
NXP's rather terse response to my inquiry is that "NFC IP will not transfer to the JV but, following the JV, NXP expects to remain an NFC supplier to the handset manufacturers."
You can read a lot into that—or not.
NFC is going to be used in everything from credit cards to passports to cell phones (an a lot of other things as well). NXP was wise to hang onto its NFC IP. There may have been a deal for ST to transfer its NFC IP to NXP, or, just the opposite: to continue to compete.
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