A group of private-equity firms will buy the giant semiconductor maker for $17.6b: A few days ago, when this rumor emerged, I said that Freescale's unique flavor of ultrawideband (UWB) will most likely face the scrapheap of history in a purchase with flinty-eyed green-shade-wearing types looking at a multi-year effort to produce technology that now has the backing of no one else in the industry of scale (except Motorola, Freescale's former owner). Read last week's post for more detail.