Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM) Agrees to Acquire Atheros (Nasdaq:ATHR)

Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM) announced Wednesday they've come to an agreement with Atheros Communications (Nasdaq:ATHR) to acquire the company for $3.1 billion.

Analysts see the deal as helping to increase the position of Qualcomm in the mobility-chip market, which has been getting more competitive.

Qualcomm said they'll pay $45 a share for Atheros in an all-cash deal.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said the strategy of the company is “to continually integrate additional technologies into mobile devices to make them the primary way that people communicate, compute and access content.”

“This acquisition is a natural extension of that strategy into other types of devices.”

Atheros was trading at $44.49, gaining $0.49, or 1.11 percent, as of 12:52 PM EST. Qualcomm was trading at $52.05, up $1.08, or 2.12 percent.