Qualcomm announces $3.1 billion acquisition of wireless technology company Atheros Qualcomm chuanglixun, a network communication chip design company, specializes in wireless communication chips. Founded in 1998 and listed in 2004. It is provided to more than 30 manufacturers and conforms to IEEE 802.11 standard communication chip. The current chief executive is Dr. Craig Barrett. On January 5, 2011, Qualcomm announced a $3.1 billion acquisition of Atheros.