Alphawave agrees £1.8bn takeover by America's Qualcomm
Qualcomm is offering to pay 183p per share in cash for London-listed Alphawave, which is a near-96% premium to its closing price before the takeover interest was revealed.
But Qualcomm has also put forward an alternative share offer to Alphawave investors, which would see them receive Qualcomm stock instead of cash.
The £1.8 billion price is less than half the £3.1 billion value at which Toronto-headquartered Alphawave floated when it listed just over four years ago.
It also sees the London market lose yet another listing after a recent flurry of firms defecting from the City for rival exchanges overseas and a number of firms being bought out.
Tony Pialis, president and chief executive of Alphawave, said: 'Qualcomm's acquisition of Alphawave represents a significant milestone for us and an opportunity for our business to join forces with a respected industry leader and drive value to our customers.
'Together, we will unlock new opportunities for growth, drive innovation, and create a leading player in artificial intelligence (AI) compute and connectivity solutions.'
For Qualcomm, the acquisition is seen boosting its capabilities in AI infrastructure by expanding its intellectual property portfolio in data centre and 5G networking.
As well as data centres, Alphawave technology is used in 5G infrastructure and autonomous vehicles.
Cristiano Amon, president and chief executive of Qualcomm, said: 'The combined teams share the goal of building advanced technology solutions and enabling next-level connected computing performance across a wide array of high-growth areas, including data centre infrastructure.'
The deal is expected to complete in the first three months of 2026.
Alphawave, which listed in London in May 2021, has around 830 employees across operations in Canada, the UK, Europe and Korea.
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Telegraph
40 minutes ago
- Telegraph
When is Amazon Prime Day 2025 and what will the best deals be?
The Amazon Prime Day sale is nearly here. In previous years, it has taken place on a Tuesday and Wednesday in the middle of July, which would suggest that Prime Day 2025 will be on July 8-9, July 15-16 or possibly July 22-23. We will know very soon. This could be a good time to make your next big purchase. The best Amazon Prime Day deals are invariably on Amazon's own products such as Echo Dot speakers, Kindle e-Readers, Fire TVs and Ring video doorbells. But past years have also seen considerable discounts on electric toothbrushes, clothes steamers and some of the most sought-after headphones, including Apple Airpods. Below, you can read our predictions for the best deals to expect on Amazon Prime Day this year, based on previous sales events. Many of our top-rated products are discounted in these events. First though, here are the answers to some common questions. When is Amazon Prime Day 2025 in the UK? It will be in the middle of July, starting at midnight on a Tuesday and lasting for 48 hours. We expect Amazon to reveal the exact date very soon. Do I need to be an Amazon Prime member to get Prime Day deals in the UK? Yes, only subscribers to Amazon Prime will get the Prime Day discounts. Happily, that includes free trial members, who can benefit from 30 days' Prime membership before having to pay the standard £8.99 a month or £95 a year. Prime for students is half the price and free for the first six months. You have to prove you are enrolled on a course. With an Amazon Prime subscription you get unlimited premium delivery and access to Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Reading and other benefits including lightning deals. Read our Amazon Prime review to find out more. Is Amazon Prime Day only once a year? No, there are two Prime Day sale events. The first is in mid-July and the second, sometimes called Prime Big Deals Day, is in mid-October. How can I find the best deals? The best way is to bookmark this page, which is constantly updated with the best genuine deals. If you know what you want to buy, you could make a wish list on Amazon or at a site such as Pricerunner which can alert you when prices drop. Read my guide to finding the best deals for more tips. Are Prime Day deals genuinely good value? Prices are inflated beforehand in many cases, so it's important to check using a pricetracker such as CamelCamelCamel or Keepa. These will show you the price history of any product on Amazon. We only recommend deals if they are genuinely at their lowest price. Claimed discounts of 50 per cent or more are usually not what they seem: the actual discount is often less than five per cent. Anything over 10 per cent off the real average price is genuinely good value. Can I return items I buy on Amazon Prime Day? Yes, items bought on Prime Day have the same returns policy as on any other day of the year. Amazon allows returns within 30 days of receipt if the goods are in an unused and undamaged condition, with a few exceptions. Some people think they can buy a discounted item on Prime Day and return it for a refund after the price has gone back up, making a profit. This doesn't work. You will only be refunded what you paid. Why you can trust Telegraph Recommended Amazon never sees Telegraph Recommended articles before publication and we don't accept payment in exchange for favourable reviews, nor do we allow Amazon to pay for placement in our articles. We do extensive research and use price-tracking tools to find the best deals, which are all reviewed by our in-house team of consumer journalists before publication. Visit our Who We Are page to learn more. What will go on sale this Prime Day? This is never known ahead of time, but we can make reasonable predictions based on past Amazon sale events. Here's a selection of Telegraph Recommended-approved products which saw genuine discounts in Amazon's Spring Deal Days in March. 1. Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet Current price: £69.99 Average price over last six months: £80 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £54.99 Best budget tablet The Fire HD 8 launched last year as a lower-cost option in Amazon's own tablet range. In March's sale it dropped to £55, which is £25 less than usual. The Fire HD 8 doesn't have the most high-end spec, but this tablet was still good enough to score 7/10 in our recent review. It's lightweight, has decent battery life, and helps keep you connected with your chosen streaming, social media and communication apps, and was named the best budget tablet in our best tablets roundup. 2. Amazon Fire TV Stick HD (newest gen) Current price: £39.99 Average price over last six months: £37 Price in the March Amazon Spring Sale: £24.99 Amazon's latest basic streamer This is the newest version of Amazon's streaming stick for non-4K TVs, and has key services such as Netflix, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and Disney Plus streaming in an aesthetically updated package. In our review of the Fire Stick HD, the device's exceptional voice commands, setup process and streaming services contributed to an impressive overall score of 8/10. Usually, one of these smart little sticks would set you back about £37 but you could pick one up for £25 in the Spring Deals sale. We expect to see similar discounts for Prime Day. 3. Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro) Current price: £469 Average price over last six months: £448 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £429 Best compact tablet Apple's devices don't often see discounts so when one appears, even just a small one, it's worth considering. The iPad mini (A17 Pro) is the latest compact tablet from Apple, usually sold for about £450. It dropped to £430 in Amazon's last sale event. We picked it as the best tablet for everyday use in our guide to the best tablets. In her iPad mini (A17 Pro) review, Britta O'Boyle said: 'There's a lovely, lightweight design, a bright and vibrant display and swish performance. The iPad mini (A17 Pro) is a superb compact tablet that's perfect for everyday use and very portable.' 4. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 Current price: £1,048.95 Average price over last six months: £980 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £849 Best folding phone The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 was reduced to £849 in the March sale, which was a saving of 16 per cent on the usual price. We saw the same discount in last November's Black Friday sales. It's our top pick for the best folding phone in our best smartphones guide, offering fast performance and an improved battery life. Reviewer Rob Waugh said: 'Samsung finally hit the sweet spot for folding phones with the Z Flip 5, after almost a decade of showing off foldable screens at tech shows followed by four generations of handsets, and the new Flip 6 builds on the considerable strengths of its predecessor.' He mentions cost as a drawback, but with this deal, it's certainly less of one. The Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids is our overall top pick of the best tablets for kids. It's already reduced but in the March sale the price dropped to its lowest ever at £69.99, compared to the usual £114. It has a great battery life and the price includes a two-year, worry-free guarantee where Amazon will replace it if it breaks. Reviewer Britta O'Boyle described the parental controls on the device as excellent, as the Amazon parent dashboard enables you to ensure children can only access age-appropriate content. She also said the dashboard lets you monitor screen time, approve app requests and block websites remotely from your phone, and she praised the included robust case with its built-in stand too. Amazon's entry-level Kindle dropped from £95 to £80 for Black Friday and again in the March sale. A similar hefty discount for Prime Day looks very likely. The Amazon Kindle delivers a superb reading experience, with access to an expansive library of e-books. It offers an incredibly portable design too, allowing you to catch up on your latest read whether you're on a sun lounger or squashed onto a packed tube. Reviewer Alan Martin said: 'While the costlier Paperwhite tops our list of the best Kindles, the Kindle 2024 offers 90 per cent of the features and that will be sufficient for most readers.' Awarded Best Buy in our guide to the best noise-cancelling headphones, the Sony WH1000XM4 dropped to £178 in the March sale and in the past have been available for as little as £175, a good price for such an excellent pair of cans. They are not the brand's newest headphones. The current M6 version has additional noise-cancelling features, but these still have over 30 hours of battery with noise-cancelling turned on and they deliver a superb mix of performance and price. Reviewer Rob Waugh said: 'In the under-£200 bracket, these are undisputed sound quality champions, with breathtakingly realistic music where the vocals sound like you're in the room with the person.' Our favourite smart alarm clock, the Echo Spot dropped to £55 in the March sale and has been known to drop to £45. Perfect for a bedside table, the Echo Spot has a display to show you the time and other important information, like the weather. It also has built-in Alexa, allowing you to perform various functions from controlling your smart home devices to playing your favourite music or podcasts, and the design is small and compact so it doesn't attract too much unwanted attention. In our Echo Spot review, Alan Martin said it was a 'charming little smart speaker' with the 'sound quality good enough for the bedroom and Alexa a helpful assistant'. Ahead of the sale, Amazon has already dropped the price of its own Fire TV by about £30 but you might be advised to hold off until Prime Day before buying. What do we think of the Amazon Fire TV? In our round-up of the best 4K TVs our television expert, Chris Hall, called it the best smart 4K TV, with its Alexa voice assistant integration and breadth of apps. Screen quality is superb for the price, too, with the TV adapting to the light levels in your room and tweaking the picture accordingly. If you're looking to improve your home security you can do a lot worse than the Ring Video Doorbell Pro. Loaded to the hilt with useful features, the Video Doorbell Pro is the only Ring camera with head-to-toe imaging, ideal for identifying packages left on your doorstep. It's currently more expensive than usual, so wait for the (probable) hefty Prime Day discount before buying. In our review of the best video doorbells, our reviewer Kulwinder Rai found that the fisheye camera offered plenty of detail and was particularly impressed with the Colour Night Vision, allowing him to identify nearby car number plates even in low light. Prime Day could be a smart time to pick up a previous-generation flagship smartphone for less. Samsung's Galaxy S24 has since been replaced by the Galazy S25 Ultra, but the differences were not huge. If you can pick last year's model up for the £660 we saw in the March sale, you will save a fortune. You get the same set of Galaxy AI tricks, including the ability to remove unwanted objects from the background of your pictures with just a tap and instant translations during calls. The display is immaculate, too, with true-to-life colour accuracy and a high level of brightness. Apple's top-of-the-range iPhone is already back down to its Spring Sale price. At just five per cent off, this doesn't meet our usual 10 per cent threshold, but keep an eye out: there's a small chance it could dip further on Prime Day. Even if not, a £25 discount is better than none. The iPhone 16 is undoubtedly expensive, but worth the outlay. You can read all about why our reviewer Britta O'Boyle rates it (including for its cameras and fast performance) in our best iPhone guide. Best predicted home deals 13. Hoover HL5 Current price: £269 Average price over last six months: £225 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £149 Best lift-away vacuum for pet hair As any pet owner knows, it takes a special kind of vacuum cleaner to gracefully gather animal hairs, especially if you have a long-haired cat or dog. One of the best you can get is the Hoover HL5 Pets, which we consider one of the top vacuum cleaners for pet hair, earning a score of 9/10 during our hands-on testing. We regard this model as the best lift-away vacuum cleaner for pet hair, thanks especially to its impressive suction. The cleaner's HEPA 13 filter will help prep a feline-owning home for visitors who are allergic to cats, too. It was discounted by over £75 in Amazon's spring sale, so should be worth keeping a very close eye on. 14. GTech AirRAM MK2 K9 Current price: £260 Average price over last six months: £238 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £183.99 Best pet vacuum cleaner for older users The GTech AirRAM dropped to £184 in the March sale, its lowest price ever. It's our top pick for older users in our best pet vacuum cleaners guide thanks to its lightweight build and ease of use. When Simon Lewis reviewed it, he said: 'Although the AirRAM K9 is far less powerful than the other vacuums we tried, the suction is actually pretty great. The large, rectangular head leaves clear, broad stripes where it's been, like a proper floor cleaner should.' 15. Philips 5000 Series 9L NA555/09 Dual Basket Steam Air Fryer Current price: £249.99 Average price over last six months: £211 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £169.99 Best dual air fryer for steaming The Philips 5000 Series 9L NA555/09 Dual Basket Steam Air Fryer dipped to a record low £169.99 in the March sale, which is a saving of £40 on the average price. When we reviewed it for our best air fryer guide, we loved the steam function and the option to cook both frozen and fresh fries. Reviewer Rebecca Shepherd said the Philips 5000 Series air fried food brilliantly and 'each test resulted in dishes that were golden brown, deliciously crisp and nowhere near dry'. Our Best Buy in our best bean-to-cup coffee machine guide dropped to its lowest ever price in the Spring event, about £150 less than it's currently on sale for. It offers a fantastic range of coffee options, is very easy to use and has a compact footprint. Reviewer Anna Tobin said in her De'Longhi Rivelia Automatic review: 'When tested against other bean-to-cup coffee machines the De'Longhi Rivelia came out as our favourite overall because it produces several different types of great-tasting coffee and it's super simple to operate and pretty easy to keep clean'. 17. Panda Memory Foam Bamboo Pillow Current price: £44.95 Average price over last six months: £44 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £38 Best memory foam pillow We tend not to see many sleep deals worth shouting about in Amazon events, but the March sale saw a few pounds off our favourite memory foam pillow from our round-up of the best pillows for a good night's sleep. And given you can't put a price on a full eight hours, we'll take the savings where we can. Despite apprehensive first impressions (it's a lot flatter than a traditional pillow), our reviewer Abigail Buchanan was soon won over once she started sleeping on it. She was impressed with its breathability, and said: 'It is supremely supportive and comfortable once you lie down, and the hypoallergenic bamboo pillow cover is very soft to the touch.' 18. Cuisinart One Cup Grind And Brew Coffee Machine Current price: £148.48 Average price over last six months: £141 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £107.98 Best budget coffee machine The current price is higher than average for this compact bean-to-cup machine, which is a good indication that a price drop is on the horizon. The March sale saw it slashed by £33. Our coffee expert Silvana Franco was impressed with this affordable machine, naming it the best budget-friendly option in her best coffee machines review round-up. It's not going to give you barista-quality coffee or fancy features such as grind size adjustment, but what you do get is an easy way to make classic, filter-style black coffee at home. 19. Breville Iced Coffee Maker Current price: £32.99 Average price over last six months: £31 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £24.99 Best iced coffee maker We named this model the best iced coffee maker in our test of the best coffee machines. You use it pretty much like a filter coffee maker, and place a cup with ice beneath the coffee as it pours out (possibly squirting in a syrup for added flavour), and is an easy-to-use budget-friendly option. It's never expensive, but was reduced by 20 per cent in the March sale, which is about as good a genuine discount as you can get in Amazon sales. The March discount on the Bissell Revolution HydroSteam brought the top-performing product from our best carpet cleaners round-up down to its lowest price ever, at £299. Bissell's carpet cleaner is equipped with innovative steam cleaning tech that impressed our reviewer Kulwinder Rai. 'This machine categorically outperforms every other consumer-grade wet carpet cleaner I've tested, which is no mean feat,' he said. 'Even deeply embedded, dried-in blood and wine stains succumbed to its ministrations, once given a couple of passes of pure steam pre-treatment.' Best predicted fitness and beauty deals 21. Panasonic ES-EY90-A511 Wet and Dry Epilator Current price: £135 Average price over last six months: £125 Price in the March 2025 Amazon Spring Sale: £99.99 Best epilator overall The Panasonic ES-EY90-A511 Wet and Dry Epilator was crowned Best Buy in our best epilator guide and saw a very decent discount of £25 in the Spring sale. Reviewer Annabel Fenwick Elliott said: 'What a fantastic piece of kit. Not only was this the most efficient model for epilation, thanks to its somewhat-scary looking, combine harvester-esque double-row of tweezer discs, it also comes with an impressive array of extra accessories – including, most importantly, a small head that you can use on areas like the chin. This also makes it the best epilator for the face, and even toes.' We named the Waterpik Cordless Advanced Water Flosser the Best Buy in our best water flosser guide, so we were thrilled to see it reduced to £70 both on Black Friday and in the Amazon Spring sale. It's simple to use, packs away neatly and it offers three intensity modes. Reviewer Rebecca Astill said she thought this water flosser was 'almost perfect' when she reviewed it. 'I'd recommend starting out on the low mode as water flossing is quite a strange sensation if you haven't tried it before. I've built my way up and now favour the high mode and I've really noticed a difference in my gum line and overall mouth health,' she added. Similar to the far more expensive Oral-B iO10 but costing much less, the iO3 has a handy brush head replacement reminder and a built-in pressure sensor, with the toothbrush flashing either red or green depending on how hard you might be pressing when brushing. Our reviewer, Rebecca Astill, said: 'The surprisingly quiet sonic vibrations do provide a thorough clean of the mouth, reaching all the hard to reach corners and crevices.' It's already reduced by £44 from its fairly steep average price, but we predict the price on Prime Day could fall even lower, as it did in the Spring sale.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Here's how you'll be able to book a self-driving Uber from next year
Britons wanting to book a taxi will soon be able to hail an autonomous car as the Government fast-tracks self-driving vehicle pilots. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander confirmed the Government will introduce self-driving commercial pilots on England's roads from Spring 2026, with firms able to pilot small scale 'taxi -and bus-like' services without a safety driver for the first time. It is likely these will be available to members of the public to book via an app. Uber has already confirmed its teaming up with Microsoft-backed AI partner Wayve to bring driverless ride-hailing to London next year. The announcement has been welcomed by the automotive industry and mobility groups as 'great news' with the Government estimating it will directly help create around 38,000 jobs, make roads safer and keep the UK among the 'world leaders in new technology'. The advancement is the first step in a wider rollout of self-driving cars which will see the Automated Vehicles (AV) Act become law from the second half of 2027. It follows Labour's delays to autonomous driving announced last month, when access to UK roads by unmanned vehicles was pushed back from 2026 to 2027. Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: 'We can't afford to take a back seat on AI, unless it's on a self-driving bus. It's great to see the UK storming ahead as a global leader in using this technology - making our roads safer, travel easier and driving growth by spurring innovation across the country.' Self-driving vehicle trials have been underway in the UK since January 2015 with British firms Wayve and Oxa at the forefront of breakthroughs, recently securing a record-breaking investment of over £741 million ($1 billion), as well as announcing partnerships with Nissan and Uber. Its self-driving vehicles are already used at Heathrow Airport to improve baggage handling. Last month Labour delayed the introduction of legislation for driverless vehicles, with the Department for Transport confirmed provisions for safety driver-less AV pilots have been pushed back to 'the second half of 2027' at the earliest - a year later than the Tory Government had promised. The DfT said it was 'exploring options for short-term trials and pilots'. Today the Government has reiterated that 'innovation, world-leading regulation and road safety is at the forefront' of the pilots with s elf-driving vehicles aiming to reduce human error on the roads – which contribute to 88 per cent of all collisions. The AV Act will require self-driving vehicles to achieve a level of safety at least as high as competent and careful human drivers, and must undergo vigorous tests before being allowed on our roads. Because AVs have faster reaction times than humans, and are trained on real-world incidents, never get distracted or tired, and won't drink or drive, they can help reduce deaths and injuries caused by road collisions. In fact, the SMMT's Connected and Automated Mobility report found that AVs have the potential to save 3,900 lives and avert 60,000 serious collisions by 2040. Arun Srinivasan, Chair of RoadSafe, said, 'Collision avoidance and advanced driver assistance systems have already proved to be vital in reducing casualties and technology has further potential to prevent crashes. 'Developing and demonstrating the next generation of connected safety technologies is an essential step in achieving a shared vision of roads without fatalities or serious injuries. 'This initiative forms an important step in accelerating the development, deployment and adoption of self-driving vehicles as part of a strategic approach to enabling safe, accessible mobility on our roads.' The Government has also estimated that the speed up of AV tech will add £42bn to the UK economy by 2035, but the SMMT goes further predicting self-driving vehicles have the potential economic benefits as high as £66bn and an estimated additional 342,000 jobs by 2040. Importantly, AVs offer a wider array of accessible mobility solutions to disabled and older people. Andrew Miller, chief executive of Motability Operations, said, 'Automated vehicles have the potential to be transformative. Implementing this technology on the UK's roads could help our disabled customers be better connected to work, education, healthcare and wider society. 'We welcome this announcement, which is an important step in bringing automated vehicles a step closer, and we will work with the sector to ensure that when the time comes the transition to automated vehicles is smooth for our customers.' Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: 'Pilot rollout of commercial self-driving services from next year will widen public access to mobility, while the consultation will ensure the technology is deployed in a safe and responsible way. 'These latest measures will help Britain remain a world leader in the development and introduction of self-driving vehicles, a manifest application of AI at its finest.' Do people actually want self-driving cars? A YouGov survey of 4,087 Britons conducted in May found that only three per cent of the public said they would prefer being transported by a self-driving car over one piloted by a human driver. Two in five said they would want to be driven by another person, and half would rather do the driving themselves. While there is little preference for the driverless car option across social groups, the poll identified a marked difference in the driver versus passenger preference; while most men and over 25s (51 per cent and 64 per cent respectively) would prefer to at the controls, these figures fall to just 39 per cent among women and 26 per cent for 18-24 year olds. Concerns regarding self-driving vehicles likely result for the number of high-profile accidents - sometimes fatal - and near misses involving autonomous cars in the US.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Trump trade czar says China talks ‘going well' after export tensions
American and Chinese officials met in London for a second day to seek a breakthrough on export controls, aiming to de-escalate trade tensions. The US accused China of blocking exports of rare earth minerals critical to the American economy, straining relations despite a preliminary deal in Geneva last month. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett indicated the US is ready to lift export controls on some semiconductors in exchange for China speeding up the delivery of rare earths and magnets. Customs data revealed that China's exports to the US plunged 34.5 per cent in May, marking the sharpest drop since the Covid pandemic outbreak. Talks were led by US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who said talks were 'going well', as well as Scott Bessent, and Jamieson Greer, and their Chinese counterparts, including Vice Premier He Lifeng.
