NXP Agrees To Sell RF Power Amplifier Assets as Condition of Freescale Buy, FTC Says

​Dutch-based chipmaker NXP agreed to sell its RF power amplifier operations to Chinese private equity firm Jianguang Asset Management to settle an FTC complaint that its $11.8 billion acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor would be anticompetitive, the agency said in a Wednesday announcement. Without the divestiture to Jianguang, “it is likely that the proposed merger would substantially lessen competition in the worldwide market for RF power amplifiers, likely resulting in higher prices and reduced innovation,” the FTC said. It estimates the global market for RF power amplifiers is “extremely concentrated,” with Freescale and NXP supplying more than 60 percent, the agency said. Its proposed consent order requires NXP to sell Jianguang its Philippines factory, a headquarters and testing building in the Netherlands, and all patents and technologies “used exclusively or predominantly for the RF power amplifier business,” the agency said. NXP representatives didn’t comment Friday.