Qualcomm Acquires Atheros, Sony Introduces Its Google TV, Memjet Spins Out Partnerships, & More San Diego BizTech News

Last week’s Consumer Electronics Show dominated San Diego’s tech news last week. We have the highlights from the two dozen San Diego tech companies that attended the annual conference, along with the rest of the local biztech news.

—In one more sign that Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly important to the future of wireless network infrastructure, San Diego’s Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) said it’s buying San Jose-based chipmaker Atheros Communications (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ATHR]]) for roughly $3.1 billion. The acquisition, if finalized, is Qualcomm’s biggest ever—and expands the wireless giant’s reach into products that span cellular, home, smart grid, and sensor networks.

—Motorola split into two new companies—Motorola Solutions, which will remain in Motorola’s headquarters in Schaumburg, IL, and Motorola Mobility, which is moving, for now, to nearby Libertyville, IL. There’s no word yet on whether Motorola Mobility, now headed by former Qualcomm COO Sanjay Jha, will move its HQ to San Diego, the Bay Area, or Austin, TX, the three cities Jha said the company was considering late last year.

—The annual Consumer Electronics Show regained its appeal as more than 140,000 attendees flooded the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center last week. The hottest electronics categories this year included smart phones, tablets, and TVs, and we saw the world of software apps moving from complex suites such as Microsoft Office to simpler “best of breed” apps available online at places like the Apple App Store.

—Sony Electronics, whose North American headquarters is in San Diego, led the charge in Web-enabled television with its lineup of sets powered

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.