Scanning news and highlights from the past week:

Companies and Products

In business moves, Harris is paying $4.75 billion for Exelis, which is about 1.5 times revenue. Combined, their revenue of $8.2 billion will be 66% larger than Harris itself.

National Instruments (NI) is acquiring Cobham's PXI modular hardware product line and will become Cobham's primary provider of PXI technology.

China and Qualcomm resolved the country's investigation of the company for violating anti-trust laws. Qualcomm will pay $975 million and reduce patent royalty rates. Qualcomm's Chairman Irwin Jacobs says he's relieved and sees the future in biometrics. Hat tip to @WirelessWeek.

Huawei hasn't given up on gaining market share and acceptance in the U.S. Their CEO says the company will be more transparent.

ANADIGICS regained compliance with NASDAQ after their stock price closed above $1 for 10 consecutive trading days. It's been above $1 since January 26. The company will release Q4 earnings today.

GigOptix reported 2014 revenue of $32.9 million, which was 14% above 2013. Datacom sales grew 80% and E-Band IC revenue reached $3.1 million.

Turning to products, Pasternack released 17 broadband LNAs covering bands from 30 MHz to 40 GHz. The LNAs are in stock for immediate shipment.

5G

Ericsson and the Chinese Academy of Information and Communication Technology (CAICT) signed an MoU to collaborate on 5G development, which ought to improve the company's standing in China. Ericsson views 5G as not just a RAN technology, rather a wireless access solution for mobile communication.

Jo Best has written a comprehensive overview of the challenges pacing the development of 5G.

Freescale is also making predictions on the future of 5G.

As most see millimeter wave spectrum playing a role in 5G, NYU Wireless is pushing the FCC to act fast on making the spectrum available for use. They are characterizing propagation and developing channel models for millimeter wave bands and published results in our November issue.

Internet of Things

An industry insider shares a few lessons on the journey to the connected home.

Companies to watch: Pixie aims to turn the Internet of Things from a buzzword into a pretty compelling solution.

Other Items

Facebook joined Google in allowing you to designate someone to "inherit" your account following death.

As we approach the FCC's decision on net neutrality, Jeff Hecht writes that treating all bits the same is not as easy as it may sound: Take away priority coding and you break VoLTE. Hat tip to @krigle.

Arguably, the company with the best product development process stands a better chance of winning in the market. However, does your stage gate process actually stifle innovation?

Other companies or markets that you'd like me to follow? Leave a comment, and I'll add them to my list.