China’s antitrust regulator has told Qualcomm not to lay the blame at Beijing’s door over the company’s decision to pull out of its acquisition of Dutch semiconductor firm NXP, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Qualcomm nixed its proposed $44 billion takeover of NXP last Wednesday after failing once again to gain the approval of China’s State Administration for Market Regulation. Eight other agencies around the world had given the green light to the deal, but the Chinese body last week pushed back its decision till October because of continued competition concerns.
In a statement, the Chinese regulator defended its process and highlighted that the decision to end the deal was made by the American company.
“Qualcomm and NXP decided to abandon the deal as the deadline the two parties agreed on expired. [We] regret this,” the regulator said.
Qualcomm will be forced to pay a $2 billion fee to NXP in compensation for terminating the deal.