Apple to buy Intel cellular modem unit

Apple Inc. is buying Intel Corp.’s struggling cellular modem unit, bringing on key engineering talent and patents that will allow the technology giant to more quickly develop crucial components to connect its devices to the mobile internet.

The deal will give Apple 2,200 new employees and now a total holding of 17,000 wireless patents. Apple has been using Intel modems exclusively in iPhones since last year. But after having settled its long-standing royalties’ lawsuit with Qualcomm Inc. in April, it will go back to using that company’s 5G cellular modems for future versions of products like the iPhone.

Qualcomm was the first to offer such technology at a mass scale and was on track to have its second-generation chip in the market before Intel released its first. Eventually, Apple wants to shed all third-party partners and bring modem production in-house, a move that the deal with Intel should help expedite.

Apple has been working on its own modem technology for the past couple of years and has established development centers, including in San Diego, a hotbed for modem development and Qualcomm’s backyard, to support the effort. In recent months, Apple has been ramping up hiring from Intel and Qualcomm to work on 5G modems.

Arrow Electronics to buy Einfochips

New York Stock Exchange listed Arrow Electronics Inc. has agreed to acquire Ahmedabad based product engineering company Einfochips Ltd. On its successful completion, the acquisition will give Arrow access to Einfochips 1,500 Internet of Things (IoT) solution architects and software development resources.

Arrow Electronics is a global provider of products, services and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing solutions. Shroff, an alumnus of BITS Pilani and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, founded Einfochips in 1994. The company works in the areas of product engineering, device life cycle management, IoT and cloud computing frameworks, intelligent automation and video management.

Before founding Einfochips, Shroff had worked for Intel Corp. and Daisy Systems Corp. in the US. At Intel, he was a part of the 80186 processor design team, and was one of the founding engineers at Daisy Systems. Shroff said that Einfochips was among the first companies in Gujarat to offer employee stock options to its workforce.

Shroff, who is also a trustee at Calorx Foundation that works in the education sector in Gujarat, said his company had created an ecosystem that has moulded more than 5,000 engineers so far and contributed in creating as many as 17 start-ups that have been founded by ex-employees of Einfochips

Google acquires Halli Labs

American Technology giant Google has acquired Bangalore based artificial Intelligence firm Halli Labs for an undisclosed sum. The firm becomes the latest AI start up to be snapped by a technology giant after a spate of similar acquisitions by firms such as Microsoft, Facebook, Apple among others.

Halli Labs was founded with the goal of applying modern AI and Machine Learning techniques to old problems and domains. In order to help technology enable people to do whatever it is what they want to do, easier and better. According to research by CB Insights, 34 Artificial Intelligence startups have been acquired in the first quarter of this year, which is double the number compared to the year-ago period.

The study also notes that Google has been the most aggressive in this space with 11 acquisitions since 2012 followed by Apple, Intel and Facebook. Some of the acquisitions by Google in AI include firms such deep learning and neural network startup DNNresearch from the computer science department at the University of Toronto in 2013; British company DeepMind Technologies in 2014 for $600 Million, visual search startup Moodstock, and bot platform Api.ai last year.

It acquired predictive analytics platform Kaggle in the first quarter of this year. Even though India has become the third largest market for start-ups, acquisitions by global technology companies have been few. Some of the notable ones include ZipDial which was acquired by Twitter in January 2015 and LittleEyeLabs that was snapped up by Facebook in January 2014.

Intel acquires Nervana Systems

Tech giant Intel has acquired California based deep learning start-up Nervana Systems run by an Indian origin Entrepreneur, allowing the chip maker to foray into the world of Artificial Intelligence. Nervana has a fully optimized software and hardware stack for deep learning.

Nervana Engine and silicon expertise will advance Intel AI portfolio and enhance the deep learning performance. Intel has the best semiconductor technology in the world. Nervana AI expertise combined with Intel capabilities and huge market reach will allow Intel to realize vision and create something truly special. Intel will apply Nervana software expertise to further optimize the Intel Math Kernel Library and its integration into industry standard frameworks.

With this deal, Intel will now shatter the old paradigm and move into a new regime of computing. The semiconductor integrated circuit is one of humanity crowning achievements. Intel is one of the world largest and highest valued semiconductor chip makers based on revenue. Buy selling to Intel, Nervana has access to technology.

Intel in talks to buy Altera

Intel Corporation is an American Multinational corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Intel is one of the world largest and highest valued semiconductor chip makers, based on revenue. It is the inventor of x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. Altera Corporation is an American manufacturer of Programmable Logic Devices (PLD), reconfigurable complex digital circuits. The company released its first PLD in 1984.

People with knowledge of matter said that, Intel is in talks to acquire Altera. Altera shares jumped 28% to $44.39 at the close in New York, giving the company a valuation of about $13.4 Billion. Intel rose 6.4% to $32. Intel is on the hunt for growth as it faces a slowdown in the market for PCs that forced a $1 Billion cut in its first quarter sales forecast earlier this month. This decline comes on top of heavy losses in Intel’s mobile division. The group reported an operating loss of $4.21 Billion in 2014.

A bright spot for Intel is the data center group, where profits soared to $7.28 Billion on sales of $14.4 Billion in 2014. The company benefited from a boom in the amount of data being generated and held in computing centers around the world. Altera makes a broad range of low power semiconductors, which are used in small embedded devices and computer servers for big data centers.

In buying Altera, Intel could expand into markets for automotive, industrial and communication applications, while cementing its leads in data centers. Intel and Altera announced a manufacturing partnership in Feb 2013, agreeing that Altera chips would be made in Intel’s cutting edge plants.