Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has hired a top chip engineer from Qualcomm amid a legal dispute between the two over the technology used in iPhones.
Esin Terzioglu, who supervised the engineering business of Qualcomm’s core communications chip business, announced he was joining Apple on his LinkenIn page. Terzioglu is an expert in baseband, the modem that allows for communications and uploads and downloads of data between a device and the internet.
“It has been my honor and privilege to have worked with so many talented and dedicated individuals at Qualcomm where we accomplished great feats as a team (10nm bring up was a doozy and the team did an amazing job bringing the first product to market!!!)," Terzioglu wrote. "I feel privileged for the opportunity to continue my career at Apple. Stay in touch."
Qualcomm and Apple's ongoing legal battle...
The move comes as Qualcomm seeks significant damages after Apple sued it for at least US$1bn in January on claims it charged royalties for technology that the iPhone maker has “nothing to do with”.
Apple uses Qualcomm’s chips in its iPhones but it does not pay for the technology. It instead pays through contract manufacturers in Asia, such as Foxconn, which build the iPhone.
Apple claims that it has been overcharged billions of dollars indirectly by Qualcomm.
But Qualcomm contends that Apple withheld a similar amount from four contract manufacturers, which as a result held back from payments to Qualcomm.
Qualcomm accuses Apple of lying to regulators...
Apple filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm in the US in January for allegedly trying to control the chips market and withholding more than US$1bn in rebates as retribution for talking to Korean regulators. Apple is also suing Qualcomm in China, the UK and Japan.
Qualcomm was fined 1.03trn won for violating antitrust laws in South Korea in December. A month later was accused by the US Federal Trade Commission of forcing Apple to use its chips exclusively in return for lower licensing fees and cutting out rivals.
Qualcomm, however, alleges that Apple provided “false and misleading statements to induce regulators to take action against us because it would be in their commercial interests”.
The company also claims that Apple chose to limit the performance of iPhones that used Qualcomm chips so that consumers would not realise they performed better than those supplied by rival Intel.
Chips from Qualcomm and Intel were both included in different models of the iPhone 7.