STMicroelectronics is not interested in buying the wireless activities of Infineon Technologies, according to ST's CEO Carlo Bozotti.

Asked, this morning, if at some point Infineon's wireless chip business comes up for sale, would he integrate it into the ST-NXP joint venture in wireless chips, Bozotti replied: "I don't believe it makes any sense to integrate the wireless activity of Infineon into our jv, if available."

The question arises because, following the ousting of Infineon CEO Wolfgang Ziebart, it is said that the Infineon supervisory board has agreed with Wall Street financiers KKR to issue enough shares for KKR to take control of Infineon, and then fold NXP, which KKR controls as the lead member of the consortium which owns it, into Infineon.

If that happened, then KKR would doubtless be looking for a buyer for Infineon's wireless business because KKR has already acknowledged, by pushing NXP into divesting NXP's wireless business into a joint venture controlled by ST, that NXP's wireless business is too small to afford the R&D cost to stay in the wireless business.

Since Infineon's wireless chip business is about the same size as NXP's was before the divestiture, it seems inevitable that a KKR-controlled Infineon will look to divest its wireless operation.

The ST-NXP joint venture would be the most obvious place for it, not least because of geography, but Bozotti seems to be ruling out the idea.

Other possible buyers would be Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Mediatek, Freescale and Broadcom. Qualcomm, the No.1 wireless player, might be interested in getting control of Infineon's LTE IP because, if LTE is to be the dominant standard at 4G, as looks likely, then Qualcomm will want to boost its IP position in LTE.

See also: Why ST-NXP Is A JV, Not A Sale, by Theo Claasen

See also: Mannerisms, the blog of David Manners. Updated twice daily, it's the distinctive, entertaining, authoritative and never dull commentary on the semiconductor industry, from someone who knows. Sign up for the Mannerisms eNewsletter.