Smartphone chip maker Qualcomm Inc. has agreed to buy NXP Semiconductors for $38 billion. The agreement allows Qualcomm, which makes chips for Apple and Android, to become the top seller of semiconductors for the car business.

Qualcomm’s core business is in processors and wireless chips for smartphones. The deal allows the San Diego-based company to reduce its dependence on smartphones, a huge business that has reached a plateau.

NXP is the largest maker of semiconductors for the auto industry.

Qualcomm earns more than half of its profits from licensing its wireless patents to the makers of smartphones.

Fortune magazine reports that Wall Street was enthusiastic about the deal.

“Qualcomm doesn’t just diversify its offerings. The two companies appear to have complementary strengths, thus making important product lines, like chips for self-driving cars and connected devices, more appealing in the growing market for the Internet of Things. And after Qualcomm lost some modem chip business in the popular iPhone 7 to Intel, the acquisition could boost its iPhone share thanks to NXP sensor and payment chips Apple AAPL -0.57% uses.

“The two companies announced on Thursday that Qualcomm would offer NXP investors $110 a share in a tender offer to be funded with cash and about $11 billion of borrowing. The deal isn’t expected to close until late next year, as semiconductor combinations often face lengthy regulatory reviews. The transaction must be reviewed by regulators in nine jurisdictions, the companies said. That largely explains why shares of NXP were trading at about a 9% discount to the offer price on Thursday morning.”

Gary Bradshaw, an investor with Hodges Capital Management, says, “When I’m driving my Toyota Camry hybrid, and I start veering into the other lane, and the car starts beeping, all that’s my NXP.” Bradshaw says the deal is an obvious one for Qualcomm, especially in anticipation of self-driving cars. “Will all the trucks be driverless, in five years? I don’t know but, they will have chips.”

In a statement, Qualcomm’s CEO Steve Mollenkopf said that by combining the two companies, “we will be even better positioned to empower customers and consumers to realize all the benefits of the intelligently connected world.”

Bradshaw says the deal gives Qualcomm a foothold as the “Internet of things” — products such as refrigerators and toasters getting connected to the Web — becomes a reality. “There’s a lot of differentiation between the two companies. They’ll mesh together,” says Bradshaw. The company said it expected to clear regulatory hurdles because of the complementary nature of the two businesses. The Wall Street Journal reports the move is not without risk.

“Buying NXP will turn the company into a factory operator for the first time. NXP, which became a bigger manufacturer through the purchase last year of Freescale Semiconductor, owns seven factories in five countries that turn silicon wafers into chips. Besides those plants, known as fabs, NXP operates seven facilities that package and test chips before they are sold.”

Qualcomm pioneered what the semiconductor industry calls the “fabless” business model. The company’s popular wireless chips, used in the smartphones of Apple Inc. and others, are mostly manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and firms that build products to order for chip designers.

Bradshaw says Qualcomm has been sitting on a lot of cash in foreign banks and buying NXP, a Netherlands-based company, allows Qualcomm to spend some of its excess cash. Qualcomm’s stock reached an all-time high during trading on announcement of the deal.

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Tesla surprised Wall Street Wednesday by posting a profit of nearly $22 million for the third quarter. It’s a surprise because it’s only the second time in the company’s history that it has posted a quarterly profit.

Tesla attributes its newfound profitability to new product launches, increased store efficiency and new store openings. At the same time the company says its investment in self-driving hardware and other product enhancements position Tesla to gain market share.

“We’ve got a chance of being profitable,” said Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk about next quarter on the company’s earnings call. The last time Tesla posted a profit was in the first quarter of 2013.

“That remains to be seen,” says Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Autotrader, about Tesla’s future profitability. Krebs says the company was able to keep costs in check while focusing on meeting production targets. She adds: “Finally, Tesla has achieved a milestone that investors long awaited — a profitable quarter and a surprise one at that.”

The profitable quarter comes at a particularly good time for Tesla, according to Krebs. Next month, the Tesla board votes on the controversial merger with SolarCity Corp. Musk is the chairman of Solar City, the maker and installer of solar panels, a company founded by his cousins.

In addition to the merger, Tesla is building its “gigafactory” which would be the largest battery factory in the world. The company sees energy storage and production as a key to growth as outlined in a letter to investors.

“Our energy storage products are gaining increased market acceptance, firmly establishing Tesla as a leader in energy storage solutions, and surpassing our competitors in the breadth and scope of our offerings across residential, commercial, and utility-scale storage markets. At the same time, we continue to lay the foundation for future growth. Gigafactory construction and Model 3 development both remain on plan to support volume Model 3 production and deliveries in the second half of 2017.”

Tesla says its activity in the battery realm didn’t keep it from achieving its internal goals. Musk told reporters the company is on track to build the Tesla Model 3, an affordable electric car. The company has set a goal of selling 500,000 vehicles by 2018. Currently, according to Musk, Tesla is building 2,000 vehicles a week. Tesla said earlier this month that it delivered 24,500 vehicles, a 70 percent increase from the same time last year. Tim Higgins of the Wall Street Journal reports on CEO’s plan for expansion.

“Tesla needs about $2.5 billion through the end of 2017 for the Model 3 roll out and the completion of a huge battery factory in Nevada, according to Brian Johnson, an automotive analyst at Barclays.

“The improved results also could help Mr. Musk make the case that he can handle merging Tesla with SolarCity Corp., which could require additional cash. The combined companies ultimately may need to raise $12.5 billion for spending through 2018, according to Oppenheimer & Co. Tesla and SolarCity shareholders are scheduled to vote on a merger Nov. 17.”

“Tesla badly needed this positive outcome after 13 quarters of unprofitable results to reassure investors,” says Rebecca Lindland of Kelley Blue Book. Lindland says keeping the Model 3 on schedule could be a precursor to even better days ahead. “If they do not,” she warns, “then this could be that sunny day that often precedes a perfect storm.”

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AT&T’s $85.4-billion bid to buy Time Warner is now official, facing what’s expected to be a tough regulatory review, given the reach and impact of the telecom and the media behemoths.

The deal is a large one for both spaces, though each has seen a fair amount of reshuffling in the power rankings over the years. (In fact, both AT&T and Time Warner are themselves results of consolidation and spin-offs.)

The latest in this year’s leadup was Verizon’s bid to buy Yahoo to combine its Internet assets with the telco’s earlier purchase of AOL. It’s a race to reach as many users — and advertisers — with as much content as possible.

Below is a condensed history.

1877

AT&T’s ancestor is born as Bell Telephone Company. Note quite a decade later, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company was formed as a subsidiary to create a long-distance network.

1923

Time magazine debuts on March 3.

Four Warner brothers establish Warner Brothers Pictures, which in 1969 becomes a subsidiary of Warner Communications, created when Kinney National Services buys what by then is Warner Brothers-Seven Arts Inc.

1984

The monopoly Bell System, aka Ma Bell, splits up into eight companies, dubbed Baby Bells, after the Justice Department pursues an antitrust case. Decades later, parts of those companies were eventually subsumed by modern-day AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink.

1989

Time Inc. and Warner Communications announce a merger to create Time Warner Inc., described by The New York Times as the “largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world” and valued at more than $15 billion.

1995

Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System announce a $7.5-billion merger, uniting brands including CNN, Time magazine, Warner Brothers and the Cartoon Network.

The Walt Disney Company says it will buy Capital Cities/ABC Inc. for $19 billion, creating what The New York Times once again describes as ” the world’s most powerful media and entertainment company.”

2000

AOL announces its plan to buy Time Warner for more than $160 billion, at the peak of the dot-com boom.

2004

Comcast drops its bid to buy Disney for $54 billion after a rebuff.

2005

SBC Corporation — formerly known as one of the Baby Bells, Southwestern Bell Corporation — acquires AT&T for more than $16 billion, creating the telecom company we now know under that brand.

2008

Time Warner spins off its cable unit, which becomes Time Warner Cable.

2009

Time Warner spins off AOL, marking the end of what goes down in history as one of the most disastrous mergers.

2011

Comcast receives regulatory approval for its $30-billion bid to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal. Comcast completely took over NBC Universal in 2013, when GE divested its stake.

AT&T gives up on its $39-billion attempt to buy T-Mobile after the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission stage forceful opposition to the union of the No. 2 and No. 4 wireless carriers.

2013

Time Warner spins off its Time Inc magazine division.

2014

Verizon buys out Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion, gaining full ownership of the nation’s largest wireless carrier.

Time Warner spurns a bid from Twenty-First Century Fox, reported at $80 billion.

2015

Comcast abandons its $45-billion bid to buy Time Warner Cable after the FCC opposes the merger over concerns of creating a cable operator and Internet provider with too much control over what Americans watch and do online.

Verizon buys AOL for $4.4 billion.

AT&T gets government approval to buy satellite TV company DirecTV for $48.5 billion, creating one of the largest pay-TV providers to compete with Comcast.

2016

The FCC and DOJ approve the $88-billion merger of Charter Communications with Time Warner Cable and a smaller rival Bright House Networks, creating the second-largest broadband provider and the third-largest video provider.

Comcast buys DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion to compete against Disney.

Time Warner buys a 10-percent stake in Hulu for $583 million.

Verizon and Yahoo announce a $4.8-billion merger that would give Verizon ownership of Yahoo’s Internet assets.

AT&T says it will acquire Time Warner for $85.4-billion.

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Things are pretty bad right now in Venezuela. Grocery stores don’t have enough food. Hospitals don’t have basic supplies, like gauze. Child mortality is spiking. Businesses are shuttering.

It’s one of the epic economic collapses of our time. And it was totally avoidable.

Venezuela used to be a relatively rich country. It has just about all the economic advantages a country could ask for: beautiful beaches and mountains ready for tourism, fertile land good for farming, an educated population, and oil, lots and lots of oil.

During the boom years, the Venezuelan government made some choices that add up to an economic time bomb.

Venezuela didn’t save its oil money. It used it to subsidize goods and services for the people, but in some unusual ways. Another choice: instead of making stuff at home, Venezuela imported almost everything it could. The government also kept tight control on the exchange rate between Venezuelan bolivars and U.S. dollars.

As long as the price of oil was high, there weren’t serious problems. Then oil prices came down.

Today on the show, we have an economic horror story about a country that made all the wrong decisions with its oil money. It’s a window into the fundamental way that money works and how when you try to control it, you can lose everything.

Music: “Deserted” and “Faded Dreams.”Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.

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Another pharmaceutical company is coming under fire for boosting the price of one of its drugs. Two lawmakers are demanding to know the justification for a more than $80,000 price hike for a year’s supply of a drug that treats leukemia patients.

As NPR’s Alison Kodjak reports:

“The drug is called Iclusig and it was approved in 2012 to treat a subset of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

“Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., sent a letter to Ariad Pharmaceuticals asking it to explain the medication’s $200,000 price tag.

“The two lawmakers say the company boosted the price repeatedly and at the same time cut the dose, effectively raising the costs even more.

“In the letter, the lawmakers demanded details about the company’s profits and any programs it offers to cut patient costs.”

Sanders recently has taken up the fight against escalating drugs costs and Cummings is senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The Associated Press reports:

“According to data from Truven Health Analytics, the list price for a year’s supply of Iclusig tablets has increased from $114,960 in 2012 to $198,732 in October 2016.”

During that period, says the AP, the drug Iclusig was linked to life-threatening blood clots. Ariad took the drug off the market temporarily, then re-introduced it in late 2013 with added warnings and recommended it for a small subset of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

Ariad’s price hike was first reported earlier this month by The Street.

“Ariad says the price hikes are justified because Iclusig ‘addresses an area of high unmet medical need in an ultra-orphan patient population of around 1,000-2,000 patients per year.’ “

As we have reported, Mylan Pharmaceuticals faced criticism this year over the price of EpiPen, which is used to treat allergic reactions, as did Turing Pharmaceuticals last year for the cost of Daraprim, which treats a deadly parasitic infection.

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Howard Schneider was a doctor treating psychiatric patients in the ER when he decided to transform the grocery store experience. He set out to invent the self checkout machine.

Some parts of the design were pretty straightforward, like reading barcodes and taking payments. Other things, it turned out, were not so easy. Like figuring out when people are stealing. Schneider solves these problems. Or at least makes a machine that’s good enough to use. In 1992, he eventually convinces a grocery store to install the machines. The result? Angry shoppers.

Now, hundreds of thousands of grocery stores all around the world use self-checkout machines. But customers are still frustrated.

Today on the show, how a doctor created the first self-checkout machine in his spare time. Also: why does grocery store checkout still suck?

Music: “Remember The First Time” and “Wandering Around.” Find us: Twitter/Facebook

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The U.S Advisory Council on Human Trafficking issued its first-ever report on Tuesday. This group was founded last year when President Obama appointed 11 people, all of whom are survivors of human trafficking themselves, to run the council.

This council is the first organization of its kind that allows survivors to directly recommend policy to government agencies. The first report offers 15 recommendations on five topics, ranging from seeking and allocating grant funding for survivor services to training law enforcement agents to recognize the signs of human trafficking.

We spoke to Ronny Marty, a victim of labor trafficking who came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic in 2009. Though today he’s an activist against human trafficking and a member of the advisory council, back then, he just wanted the hotel job he’d been promised.

What did you find when you got to the U.S.?

Everything changed. It was nothing they promised me. I was supposed to work in a hotel, but they said they only had jobs in a DVD manufacturing company. I didn’t have any other options, because I had borrowed so much money to pay the $4,000 I needed to come here.

[The five of us working together] were making so little money because of all the deductions. They were deducting for visa extensions, housing, transportation to move us from Kansas City to Huntsville. They put three of us in a one-bedroom apartment with three tiny beds and made us each pay the employer $300 a month. But the employer was only paying $400 a month for the apartment. They told us if we left, they would call immigration and we’d be sent back home. They told us we needed them to extend our work visas to stay legally. They told us they knew where our families lived and they’d go after them.

How did you escape that situation?

Once the employer stopped paying rent I had to talk to the landlord, because I was the only one of us who spoke English. She looked at my pay stubs and knew that something was wrong, [because of the deductions] so she got me to talk to the local newspaper. Then, that helped us [move and] find other jobs in Biloxi, Mississippi. In Biloxi, we talked to [federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents. They put us in touch with NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] that gave us food, housing, everything we needed. Everything started going for the better.

My story is kind of odd compared to most of the cases because everything worked out pretty good at the end. I got the services that I needed at the time that I needed them. Most of the survivors I talk to now had a much worse time. No one would help them and they were very scared to ask for help. That’s why we’re so glad survivors are part of this report because we know about how bad this can be.

How is this report different because it was written by survivors?

Our involvement is essential in this movement to end human trafficking. We went through the tough time. We have the expertise, because of our time in the field, you could say. So with that role, we can help. The government, NGOs, any organization that wants to really fight human trafficking should be asking survivors. We know, for example, why people don’t report their experiences with human trafficking, because they’re scared of the police and their trafficker told them they’re going after their families if they report.

What recommendations do you have for law enforcement?

We need agencies to understand what a survivor goes through to report their case, so the agencies can approach the survivors properly. It’s how you can make a case successful or not. It’s all about trust, because the trafficker has probably told them that the police are just going to take your information and kick you out.

At the point that I went to see [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], I didn’t trust anyone but I had nothing to lose so I went. [ICE agent] Julie Gray was so kind and professional that I started believing in people again. In 2014, when I came to my first survivor forum, I was in shock when I heard all the survivors and what they went through with the police.

Most people associate human trafficking with women and girls, but clearly, men are affected as well. Does that get enough attention?

This is a problem I face when I go to do a training or talk about human trafficking. People talk mainly just about sex trafficking, because that’s the idea that people have. But that’s why it’s important to bring the message and make them understand that the problem includes child slavery, forced labor, migrant labor. It can happen to anyone.

This report focuses mostly on how government agencies can address human trafficking. Can everyday people help?

Learn as much as you can about the signs. If they have the information, if they know what it is, if they know how to identify human trafficking, they can report it. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it could be right next to you and you don’t know it. When my landlord saw that something was going on with me and my pay stub, she was the first person who started helping me. That changed everything.

Now, your recommendations go to the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. What do you hope will come of this report?

This report is like a victory for us, just to get it out there. It’s the first step and now we’re going to be following up with the agencies to make sure that things are happening. We want to collaborate and follow up to help make these goals achievable before the 2017 report.

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