Nvidia has filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm for allegedly disrupting its acquisition of British semiconductor company Icera. Icera was initially bought over by Nvidia back in 2011 for roughly US$367 million – in cash. It was known for manufacturing chipsets for mobile broadband modem devices, which seems to be what Nvidia was trying to venture into when acquiring the company.
Nvidia’s lawsuit mentions that Qualcom has used an “unlawful abuse of dominance”, which led to the shutting down of Icera, just four years after the initial acquisition. In addition to that, Nvidia has claimed that Qualcomm has allegedly used unethical tactics that resulted in a heap of issues ranging from delays in customer orders, all the way to reductions in demand volumes.
Qualcomm, famous for manufacturing mobile chipsets, isn’t a company that is new to being challenged in court. In fact, last year, it was reported that Qualcomm had been slapped with a fine amounting to US$1 Billion for alleged wrongdoings in its licencing practices in China.
Besides that, the European commission also filed antitrust charges against Qualcomm for allegedly paying an unnamed customer to only use the company’s chipsets. Whether or not Nvidia’s lawsuit will be successful remains to be seen. If Nvidia was successful, Qualcomm is looking at a hefty compensation amounting to US$352 million.
(Source: Bloomberg)
