Chipmaker NXP to buy Freescale in US$11.8b deal

New York

NXP Semiconductors said that it would buy a smaller peer, Freescale Semiconductor, in an US$11.8 billion deal that would create a big maker of chips for industries as varied as automobiles and mobile payments.

The merger will also offer some relief to the private equity firms that bought Freescale at the height of the leveraged buyout boom, only to see the financial crisis bring the company low.