Intel is looking to further consolidate its product and services portfolio through the sale of its Home Gateway Platform Division to California-based connectivity infrastructure provider MaxLinear for $150 million. The move comes in the wake of CEO Bob Swan's efforts to reduce Intel's expenses on markets that aren't showing the needed returns to justify the increased investment in engineering and distribution - as with everything, there is associated opportunity cost with every product division that isn't up to the task. And in this case, the task was always daunting, with Intel's Home Gateway Platform Division (whose efforts center around system-on-a-chip (SoC) products for home gateways, Wi-Fi access points and Ethernet) competing with the likes of Qualcomm and Broadcom.

This comes after Intel already sold its cellular modem business to Apple on the rationale that it wouldn't "have provided attractive returns." An Intel spokesperson clarified that the sale of the Home Gateway Platform Division represents "a majority of the assets from Intel's Home Gateway Platform Division but not all of them." Intel expects most jobs directly impacted to find alternatives under the new MaxLinear umbrella, or though an internal Intel reshuffling. Intel is choosing to refocus on high-margin markets over which it already has ascendance, instead of trying to diversify - in this case - towards the cutthroat mobile and home gateway markets.