​Chinese Regulators Approve Qualcomm NXP Merger: Report

Chinese regulators have approved Qualcomm's $44 billion purchase of NXP, the South China Morning Post said citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The decision by China's Ministry of Commerce clears months of antitrust roadblock caused by trade tensions between the US and Beijing, and will allow the takeover to proceed, the paper said.

With the green light from China's Ministry of Commerce, the deal has effectively been approved by all nine required global regulators.

The US chip maker first announced its bid to take over the Dutch semiconductor firm in 2016.

It was a strategic move to lessen reliance on its previous licensing business model in phones and find to growth in areas such as automobile, which NXP has a strong portfolio on.

Approval from China was the final roadblock of seeing the deal through as other regulators have already given the greenlight.

The trade war between China and US has temporarily put the deal in doubt.

ZTE was initially banned from the US market but the Trump administration has recently reversed course.

Qualcomm is yet to officially confirm the deal's approval.

Related Coverage

Qualcomm's Q2 better than expected, Apple dispute weighs as does NXP uncertainty

Qualcomm's second quarter had multiple moving parts, but the company said it saw strong chip demand and was prepping for 5G deployments.

Qualcomm rejects rumors of data center chip business abandonment

Staff numbers will be cut, but the business unit will keep pushing into the US and China.

Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 850 platform, boosts "Always Connected" Windows 10 PCs

The company's latest offering has been developed to improve device speed, battery life, AI, and multimedia support.

Facebook, Qualcomm team up to deliver 60GHz Internet in urban areas

It is hoped Facebook's Terragraph system will help tackle network congestion through the use of unlicensed spectrum.

Qualcomm XR1 chip could bring faster, cheaper AR/VR to the enterprise (TechRepublic)

The platform will also optimize for AI-powered AR experiences, and help with battery life.