This acquisition expands Skyworks' portfolio with highly complementary analog semiconductor products including battery chargers, DC/DC converters, voltage regulators and LED drivers.

Intel is considering buying Texas Instruments' OMAP division, according to a highly placed executive at another fabless semiconductor firm.

The fact that Nokia's new chief had to deal with a long-shot of a rumor regarding a supposed buyout deal from Microsoft - at a big discount to its current valuation - shows how far the world's largest mobile phone company has fallen.

The Atheros team will operate as Qualcomm Atheros, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm. The Qualcomm connectivity team will shift over to Qualcomm Atheros to combine resources and roadmaps.

The acquisition, valued at US$2.3 billion including net debt, will substantially enhance the scope of Toshiba's Smart Grid and Smart Community businesses and position the company as a global competitor with world-class capabilities.

Microsoft will buy Nokia's mobile division for US$30bn, and the deal will be completed this year because "both companies are very much in a hurry."

The acquisition of SiGe, a fabless semiconductor provider, complements Skyworks' leadership in wide area front-end solutions by adding SiGe's innovative short range, silicon-based products.

SanDisk has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Pliant Technology, a developer of enterprise solid state drives (SSD). Under the terms of the agreement, SanDisk will pay approximately US$327 million in cash and provide certain equity-based incentives.

Texas Instruments has announced it would sell a multi-tranche debt offering to partially fund its merger with National Semiconductor.

"In the near term, both companies should benefit by cross-selling their products to largely non-overlapping customer bases," writes Linley Gwennap with The Linley Group. "For the longer term, the acquisition gives Nvidia an opportunity to expand the market for "Tegra" by developing single-chip products that combine the application and baseband processors."

Toshiba is near an agreement to buy Landis+Gyr, a Swiss electronic-metering company, for more than US$2 billion, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

This acquisition will expand the breadth of Rambus' breakthrough technologies available for licensing with complementary technologies from CRI that include patented innovations and solutions for content protection, network security, anti-counterfeiting and financial services.

Microsoft has confirmed that it has agreed to buy Internet phone service Skype. The deal will see Microsoft pay US$8.5 billion for Skype, making it Microsoft's largest acquisition.

Microsoft is close to a deal to buy Internet phone company Skype Technologies for between US$7 billion and US$8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, adding that the deal could be announced as early as Tuesday.

Broadcom announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SC Square, security software developer based in Israel.

Applied Materials's US$4.9 billion purchase of Varian Semiconductor may trigger a round of acquisitions in the chip-machinery industry, making companies such as Novellus Systems possible targets.

Applied Materials and Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates have announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement under which Applied will acquire Varian for US$63 per share in cash. The acquisition will extend Applied's leadership in wafer fabrication equipment with the addition of the technology leader in ion implantation.

The proposed transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011. SiBEAM provides high-speed wireless communication products for uncompressed HD video in consumer electronics and PC applications.

Samsung is looking to sell the unit for US$1.5 billion, but it may consider a deal under US$1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. A potential buyer is Seagate Technology.

Dutch chip maker NXP is not in takeover talks, its chief executive said, although he would consider an offer like the one Texas Instruments made for National Semiconductor.

NXP Semiconductors is almost an US$8 billion market capitalization company, about twice the size of National Semiconductor. On the company's last earnings call, it predicted that 70 million NFC-enabled phones would ship in 2011 and 150 million next year. NXP is the chip that will power a majority of those phones.

TowerJazz has signed a non-binding term sheet contemplating its purchase of Micron Technology's fabrication facility in Nishiwaki City, Hyogo, Japan. The proposed purchase would nearly double TowerJazz's current internal manufacturing capacity, increasing production by 60,000 wafers per month.

Verigy has said that an acquisition offer from Advantest is better than an earlier deal Verigy made to buy rival LTX-Credence. Advantest is offering US$15 per share for Verigy. Based on Verigy's 60.7 million outstanding shares as of March 1, the deal is worth US$910.8 million.

AT&T has said it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $39 billion that would make it the largest cellphone company in the US. The deal would reduce the number of wireless carriers with national coverage from four to three, and is sure to face close regulatory scrutiny.

Speculation ARM could become a takeover target is misguided and ignores the importance of the chip designer staying independent, ARM's president said.

The deal is the largest takeover yet by Qualcomm. It also comes on the heels of Intel's US$1.4 billion purchase in August of Infineon's wireless chip business, which competes with Atheros. Many industry analysts believe Qualcomm's takeover of Atheros is the first of several potential deals in the semiconductor industry this year.

ON Semiconductor has announced the completion of the acquisition of Sanyo Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Sanyo Electric, and other assets related to Sanyo Electric's semiconductor business.

The pending acquisition of Motorola's mobile telecom equipment arm by Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), which is pending approval by China's Ministry of Commerce, would make it more difficult for domestic rivals Huawei Technologies and ZTE to enter the US market, an analyst said.

Elpida Memory intends to launch capital tie-up talks with Taiwan firms that are currently the world's sixth- and seventh-biggest DRAM chipmakers. Elpida president Yukio Sakamoto plans to visit Taiwan early next month (January 2011) to start the talks and hopes to reach a deal by the end of the company's fiscal year, according to sources.

Imagination will pay US$27 million cash for Caustic Graphics. The deal comes less than a month after the chip designer agreed a deal to buy US-based HelloSoft for up to US$47m to assist its push into video and voice-over Internet protocol products and expand its WiFi offering.

With the acquisition of Avalon Microelectronics, Altera is allowed to expand its portfolio of customizable IP solutions for OTN (Optical Transport Network) applications, supporting data rates at 1.2G, 2.5G and 10G, as well as 40G and 100G.

None of the companies involved in the bidding have publicly disclosed their participation. But those patents are likely what Apple is most interested in, since it's rumored that a "Verizon iPhone" will come with LTE support.

Following the acquisition of Numonyx earlier this year, Micron Technology has reorganized its memory operations. The company has also recruited Tom Eby, a former executive vice president and chief marketing and sales officer at NOR rival Spansion.

Applied Materials and Samsung Electronics have reached a settlement agreement that resolves potential civil claims and removes the risk of civil litigation between the parties relating to the alleged acquisition, misappropriation and misuse of Samsung's confidential semiconductor information in Korea.

Chipmaker Qualcomm wants to expand in Europe via both organic and acquisition-fueled growth, its top man in the region told a German daily in an interview published on Wednesday.

While Intel is almost certain to do other foundry deals like the one announced today, we don't see the chipmaker actually pursuing a real foundry model. Rather, Achronix and deals like it will enable Intel to develop new markets with less downside risk, and will ultimately grow the company's IDM business through acquisitions.

Canesta makes chips that, when coupled with a digital camera, give all manner of devices a sense of depth perception for the world around them, letting them "see" in three dimensions.