Their ip business is ridiculously profitable. Every cell phone sold whether they make it or not they get a cut. So no one would have issues lending to them.
I have every expectation it's "ridiculously profitable" (they don't, for example, reveal all the details of achieving good power consumption in their patents), but it's clearly not a big enough part of the company to avoid the terrible results baq highlighted in this comment:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12804392
And it's very common for a company with a great cash cow to bankrupt themselves by going out of their area(s) of core competence ... which this acquisition might be a doubling down on. I.e. isn't Qualcomm fabless, while NXP has 8 sites according to this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabricat...
"they don't reveal all the details of achieving good power consumption in their patents"
In general, that would mean the feature is not patented: the choice is usually between patent an invention (but it must be explicitly described), or keep it secret (but if anyone is able to copy it, they're allowed to do so).
Patents are essentially an award of a short-term monopoly, as recompense for publicly disclosing an invention. If the invention is not sufficiently explained, then it's merely a trade secret, and can be copied without challenge.
