Intel Sheds XScale Processor Unit

Intel sells handheld chip unit to Marvell
(AP)

AP – Intel Corp. said Tuesday it will sell its division that makes processors for handheld gadgets to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. for $600 million in cash, as the world’s biggest semiconductor maker focuses on its main business of supplying chips for PCs and computer servers.
There are basically two ways of looking at this: (1) is that Intel has yet again lost patience with a strategic investment that it has made that hasn’t immediately yielded at multi-billion dollar revenue stream; and (2) is that Intel has plans to migrate it’s x86 architecture down into a mobile form-factor, and it wants to rid itself of a competing architecture before it does so. The part of me that once believed in Intel’s strategic competence wants to believe the latter, but the part of me that sold all my Intel stock leans toward the former.
Although Intel doesn’t break out the performance of the division, analysts said it remained unprofitable as Intel overestimated its ability to break into a business that was outside its core competence.
Funny, I remember a time when designing, manufacturing and selling chips was Intel’s core competency.