The replacement of experts is a short term measure though and the window for selling NXP may be closing.
The lack of experts means that the k--ler products that would be worth real revenues are drying up. One example would be the i.mx6 versus the i.mx8 processor. The i.mx6 uses the A9 core which is faster than the i.mx8's A7. So rollouts of new i.mx6 products are still happening on top of the fact that the i.mx6 uses less power. The i.mx6 is a Freescale product, not an NXP product. i.mx8 sounds like a newer product but for many mobile devices it would be a silly buy.
Other divisions you can look out that are now valueless are the DN group at Freescale headquarters. Why would you close a networking group to concentrate instead on Auto etc. Networking is everywhere and is one of the hot industry areas but it requires expensive experts to develop however there was a time when Motorola SPS designed great wireless chipsets. Then there is RF, from all rumors completely destroyed and run by a bunch of id--ts. They simply do not have the technology or people to compete anymore since they did not invest. Now ex-freescale CEO is heading a better RF company that has the new technology. No doubt all the experts have left since if you look at the financial reports the numbers are continuously decreasing. Not an attractive buy for anyone other than some kind of Indian or Chinese passive device maker that needs legacy components.
In my opinion the reduction of expert talent over so long now has meant the company is just not an attractive purchase for a world class company anymore. Other companies know this stuff because those people end up somewhere working. With qualcomm at least they could say they had the top automotive radar and they sold the idea to them on that basis. Did Qualcomm figure that out and k--l the deal? Were they underwhelmed when they looked inside? One of the things companies look at is layoffs that have occured and what is happening in the sales channel to screw with the reported numbers. But other companies have caught up and out "experted" NXP. There is nothing in the portfolio that jumps out as special or that somebody else is not already going after. Quad core arm chips are already coming out of China at a fraction of the cost and so NXP would not be an option.
So the gutting of NXP and Freescale has gone on too long now and there is nothing special coming along. Opex can still be used to make it smaller but if they keep doing that the situation will look stable until the company becomes unworkable and all that is left are staff nobody would want to hire.