Qualcomm buys remaining interest in RF360 Holdings to boost 5G

Qualcomm announced Monday it completed the purchase of RF360 Holdings Singapore, a deal meant to strengthen Qualcomm’s radio frequency (RF) business and win future 5G smartphone design contracts.

Qualcomm said it acquired the remaining interest in RF360, a joint venture it had with TDK Electronics. In all, Qualcomm will have paid TDK about $3.1 billion, including its initial investment. The joint venture was valued at $1.1 billion in August.

Qualcomm and TDK launched the joint venture in early 2017, after first announcing it in January 2016. As of 2017, RF360 had 4,000 workers globally. Qualcomm on Monday formally welcomed the RF360 team into Qualcomm.

The RF360 joint venture produced RF front-end (RFFE) filters to enable complete 4G/5G solutions. The acquisition allows Qualcomm to offer customers a complete set of technologies from modem to antenna. That set includes 5G New Radio sub-6 GHz and millimeter Wave technologies, power amplifiers, filter, multiplexers, antenna tuning, switching and other related products. “Due to the complexity of 5G, with its new spectrum and wider bandwidths, Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced RFFE solutions are very well-positioned to win future  smartphone designs,” Qualcomm said in a statement.

”Our systems approach has created a benchmark for 5G RFFE performance,” said Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon. The original goal of the joint venture was to enhance front-end technologies for a complete mobile device ecosystem “and we have done exactly that.”

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