Without doubt, the multiple industry insiders we contacted believe that Broadcom has more to gain as Qualcomm has a sexier roadmap. To refresh your memory, Qualcomm is likely to be the first in the world with 5G, it has a good autonomous and automotive roadmap and it is a clear leader of everything to do with modems, and the fact that every high end phone outside Apple and some Samsung kit is using its SoC.

It even has a solid IoT roadmap that has great opportunities in 2018 especially on the audio and wearable side. Since many companies think that a network is part of the IoT, Broadcom might be promised more Apple business if it snaps up Qualcomm.

Broadcom, Qualcomm and NXP inside iPhone X

Broadcom supplies at least three crucial parts for the iPhone X. According to iFix it, the Broadcom BCM59355 is the wireless charging controller and Broadcom AFEM-8072, MMMB power amplifier module.

Both iPhones use the NXP 80V18 PN80V NFC controller module - soon to be owned by Qualcomm. So, if Broadcom makes it with the Qualcomm acquisition, Apple would probably make quite a sweet deal for a company that could supply modem, WiFi, power amps, wireless charging and NFC. That is a lot of business for Broadcom, the company that admittedly has quite boring products. Don’t get us wrong, it does its job well, but it is very hard to make sensational marketing around power amplifiers and wireless charging chips.

Apple is a sexy customer

Apple would want to go after licensing and probably talk Broadcom into a deal, since the new tech wireless giant would be able to provide most of the components for iPhone. Poor Intel might get dragged down in the process too, as Apple would get most of that it wants at one stroke.

Apple wants Qualcomm to be distracted and what better way to do that than encourage Broadcom to attempt a hostile takeover and convince Qualcomm major investors to sell their majority shares. This is another legal nightmare that will go for a long time.

Qualcomm, at least, managed to convince the sleepy Wall Street that it is a very worthwhile company. This is just an analysis based on many chats we had over the last few days, and definitely not far from the possible truth.