Last April Intel announced an exit from the smartphone modem business, following the loss of chief customer Apple. Now The Information reports Apple plans to buy an Intel modem division in order to develop own modem chips.

According to The Information, the Intel modem business is currently not in too good a place. The group is technically spread across the world but its foundation is in Germany, homeland of chipmaker Infineon. Chipzilla acquired the modem operations of Infineon back in 2011 for $1.14 billion, and The Information describes the German division as "one of the strongest pieces of the modem business."

The story is technically not new-- an April 2019 Wall Street Journal report claimed Apple was holding talks with Intel over acquiring "parts" of its modem business in a "potential multibillion-dollar deal." Apparently the talks had started back in Summer 2018 and went on "for months," before screeching to a halt around the time Apple managed to secure a multiyear supply of modems from Intel rival Qualcomm.

The arrangement with Qualcomm is interesting, since Apple was locked in legal battle with the company over patent licensing since January 2017. The end of the feud came as something of a surprise, especially since it concluded with a 6-year license agreement and the aforementioned multiyear supply of modems.

But why would Apple want to own a modem maker now that it has a steady supply of the hardware? The answer should be simple enough. After all, the iPhone maker is all about ensuring the in-house development of hardware, and the modem is nothing if not one of the most components making a smartphone component.

Go Apple Discusses Acquisition of Intel’s German Modem Unit (The Information, Subscription Required)