Qualcomm tried to ninja buy Intel, made a 'takeover approach' this week as Intel struggles

Qualcomm reportedly made a takeover approach to Intel this week, according to The Wall Street Journal, and only weeks after rumors flew that Qualcomm explored buying 'pieces' of Intel's chip design business.

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In the new report, Qualcomm approached Intel and taking control of the sinking ship, as Intel has been slipping in pretty much all divisions for years now. It has lost considerable desktop CPU market share to AMD, the same in the server/HPC markets, lost the GPU battle, the laptop battle is now shifting to AMD, it's firing 15,000+ staff, its semiconductor arm is struggling big time (and lost out to AMD for Sony's next-gen PlayStation 6 contract).

At this point, it's more like "what is Intel doing right?" and this is where Qualcomm seems to be heavily interested, but as Reuters points out, even if Qualcomm did acquire Intel, it would set off alarm bells across the planet, and especially the microscope of antitrust scrutiny.

The Wall Street Journal reports that in order to get the deal signed and complete, Qualcomm could sell assets or parts of Intel to other buyers. The outlet reports that the deal itself is "far from certain" and while the antitrust concerns are there, it could be possible there's an opportunity in the middle of that mess to strengthen chip design in the USA with a more successful Intel.

• Read more: Qualcomm 'explored' buying PIECES of Intel chip design business, as Intel flounders its Foundry

Qualcomm leads the market with its 4G, 5G modems and its Snapdragon chips inside of hundreds of millions of smartphones per year... but owning the best parts of Intel? That would shake up the market big time.