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BEIJING (Reuters) - A ruling on Qualcomm Inc’s proposed $38 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV may come in 2018, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters in October that Qualcomm has offered to buy NXP without some of its patents in a bid to win EU antitrust regulatory approval. The deal, the biggest-ever for the semiconductor industry, would make Qualcomm the leading supplier to the fast-growing automotive chips market.