China says don't blame us for failed Qualcomm-NXP deal

China has denied any misconduct in the scrapping of $44 billion Qualcomm-NXP deal, saying the proposal failed to meet the country's anti-monopoly concerns.

San Diego-based chipmaker Qualcomm on Thursday terminated its acquisition of Dutch tech firm NXP Semiconductors after the Chinese regulators let the final deadline pass and did not grant approval to the deal.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said the Qualcomm-NXP proposal failed to address competition concerns.

The regulator added that they had "extended their own deal-review deadline till October 14".

The two companies entered into one of the largest tech deals in October 2016 and the deadline to close the deal was extended several times as they waited for China to approve or deny the merger.

Eight of the nine countries where Qualcomm has businesses had approved the deal.

With no answer from China as the deadline passed on Thursday morning, Qualcomm announced to scrap the deal.

Paving the way for a $30 billion stock buyback, the company also announced to pay a termination fee of $2 billion to NXP Semiconductors that makes automotive, security and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.

"We will continue to focus on our strong momentum in new growth industries with projected revenues of approximately $5 billion for fiscal year 2018 -- up greater than 70 per cent from fiscal year 2016," Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, said in a statement.

--IANS

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