The EU says that the date for delivering a verdict – which was to have been Oct 17 – will now be put back with the ‘clock re-started’ from the date the information is provided.

The investigation started on June 9th.

The EU regulators are concerned about the effects of the merger on the automotive chip market among other things.

NXP is the largest player in auto ICs and Qualcomm the largest player in wireless ICs.

By bundling their respective products they could exercise an anti-competitive lock on the market.

The US regulators cleared the deal in April.

Qualcomm is also under investigation by the EU anti-trust authorities for alleged abuse of a dominant market position.