Qualcomm nears $1b deal to resolve China antitrust dispute: source   

Qualcomm Inc is likely to pay China a record fine of around $1 billion, ending a 14-month government investigation of anti-competitive practices, after the US chip maker and the regulator made significant progress during talks last week.

Qualcomm's fine would be the largest paid by any company in China.

The company would also agree to make changes to its licensing practices, though those are not expected to alter its business model.

The investigation of Qualcomm is one of the cases under China's 2008 Anti-Monopoly Law and the company's executives and National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) officials met again on Friday.

"The NDRC will soon release a new antitrust settlement," Xu Kunlin, the head of the national agency's antitrust division, said at a law conference on Monday, according to an article posted on the website of Beijing-based newspaper Securities Times.

"Qualcomm will be fined several times the total amount the NDRC fined last year," said Xu.

For the fiscal year ended September 28, Qualcomm earned about half its global revenue of $26.5 billion in China, with a large chunk of profit coming from higher-margin royalties earned from the company's licensing arm.

The NDRC probe disrupted that business, fostering disputes with existing licensees and causing other firms to delay signing new licenses, though Qualcomm reached a settlement with one "major Chinese licensee" even as the investigation continued, Qualcomm President Derek Aberle told analysts last month.

San Diego-based Qualcomm has also been seeking to deepen its presence in the Chinese market by transferring technology and investing in next-generation chip users. In July, it said it would partner with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, a major Chinese chipset maker, to manufacture Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors. It also plans to invest up to $150 million in Chinese start-ups to help develop mobile technologies for Internet, e-commerce, semiconductors, education and health.

The NDRC didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Christine Trimble, a Qualcomm spokeswoman, declined to comment.

The NDRC started a series of antitrust probes from December 2013 and Xu told a news conference in September that foreign businesses were not being targeted.