Qualcomm is buying England’s CSR in an effort to expand its mobile chip business beyond smartphones and tablets. CSR makes Bluetooth and audio processing chips, and Qualcomm says it is making the purchase to add products, channels and customers in the “Internet of Everything” and automotive infotainment markets.
The cash offer is valued at $2.5 billion at current exchange rates, and has been unanimously accepted by CSR’s board of directors. The deal is not expected to close until late summer 2015.
The “Internet of Everything” is a top priority for Qualcomm, which clearly wants to extend its leadership position in mobile communications devices to devices that are not yet connected to the Internet. Qualcomm envisions a smart home in which appliances and devices discover one another and interact, and says it is working hard to create the “fabric” for the Internet of Everything.
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In other news, Google has disclosed details of a security hole in a basic Web traffic encryption protocol. It’s called POODLE, which stands for Padding Oracle on Downgraded Legacy Encryption.
Wireless industry professionals may be more interested in some of Google’s less-publicized activities. Consultant Steve Crowley noticed that Google has filed applications with the FCC to test in five frequency bands.
In other news, Twitter is reportedly at work on plans to let users tweet money to one another. For more on that see the video below.
