Intel Corps said in a court filing today that the sale of the modem chip business to Apple was completely forced by Qualcomm's unfair authorization. As early as January 2017, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an antitrust allegation against Qualcomm, saying that Qualcomm's patent authorization policy violated federal laws and constituted unfair competition.
In May of this year, U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh issued a judgment in favor of the FTC, finding that Qualcomm illegally crowded out competitors in the smart phone chip market.
However, Qualcomm then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, hoping to reverse the court's previous ruling. Today, Intel said in a filing to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that it was Qualcomm that forced Intel to withdraw from the Modem chip market.
Intel also said that the Court of Appeal should support previous San Jose District Court rulings. Steven R. Rodgers, Intel ’s general counsel, also said in a blog post today: "We invested billions of dollars, hired thousands of employees, and acquired two companies before building A world-class innovative product (Modem chip) was eventually adopted by Apple iPhone 11. But in the final analysis, we still cannot overcome the artificial and insurmountable obstacles caused by Qualcomm to fair competition, forcing us to exit the Modem market this year. "
Intel is Qualcomm's main competitor in the field of modem chips and provides modem chips for Apple iPhone 11. But in July this year, Intel announced an agreement with Apple, which will acquire most of Intel's modem business for smartphones.
Under the agreement, approximately 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple, including related intellectual property, equipment and leases. The transaction is worth $ 1 billion and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.