Qualcomm Inc. share price up, acquires Wilocity Ltd to accelerate production of new Wi-Fi products using WiGig technology

The biggest manufacturer of chips used in mobile phones in the world – Qualcomm Inc. officially announced that it acquired Wilocity Ltd. in order to accelerate the introduction of new Wi-Fi products. Qualcomm seeks to implement a high-speed wireless technology called WiGig that it hopes to become a standard feature on mobile devices.

The company did not reveal the financial terms of the deal. In May, TheMarker reported that an acquisition is inevitable and estimated the price of the takeover to 300 million dollars. However, Qualcomm Inc. said that it will not comment on that figure.

Wilocity was founded in 2007 and is currently operating not only in the U.S. but also in Israel. It is focused on the WiGig technology that works at a higher frequency than a great part of other commonly-known Wi-Fi technologies. WiGig is used in a variety of applications and after the acquisition its fast gigabit wireless-data capabilities will be included in Qualcomms sample products.

With the takeover of Wilocity, Qualcomm Inc. enters a direct rivalry with Broadcom Corp., which is considered to be the leader in the industry, especially after buying the wireless-chip manufacturer Atheros Inc. three years ago.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, according to one of the analysts, who work at Moor Insights & Strategy – Mr. Patrick Moorhead, Qualcomm will have a lead in WiGig “given Wilocity has been shipping in devices for six months”. The competition between the companies in the industry, including Broadcom Corp. and Intel Corp. is expected to become more fierce than ever, or as Mr. Moorhead explained, the companies will be “hot on their tail”.

Qualcomm Inc. rose by 0.55% in Wednesday on NASDAQ to close the session at $80.17 per share, marking a one-year change of +31.60%. The chip maker is valued at $135.32 billion. According to CNN Money, the 36 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Qualcomm Inc. have a median target of $87.00, with a high estimate of $100.00 and a low estimate of $50.00. The median estimate represents a +8.52% increase from the last price of $80.17.