NXP Semiconductors and Freescale Semiconductor today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which NXP will merge with Freescale in a transaction which values the combined enterprise at just over $40 billion. One of NXP's largest customers is Apple which uses an NXP chip in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus for near-field communications (NFC) transactions like Apple Pay as we reported on back in August. NXP is a leader in Cyber Security, the Connected Car, the Internet of Things and Wearable solutions.

The merger creates a high performance mixed signal semiconductor industry leader, with combined revenue of greater than $10 billion. The merged entity will become the market leader in automotive semiconductor solutions and the market leader in general purpose microcontroller (MCU) products. The combined company will capitalize on the growing opportunities created by the accelerating demand for security, connectivity and processing. For more on this, see NXP's full press release here.

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