It is little surprise that Ericsson is in the race to take a stake in Intel’s network and edge division (NEX) when it is sold, as now looks likely. Intel is engaged in a cost cutting exercise that includes laying off over 20,000 staff, approaching a quarter of its entire workforce, as it retrenches to core competences, which now includes foundry capabilities, as well as its x86 architecture chips in servers, PCs and indeed Cloud RAN, as Wireless Watch discussed just two weeks ago before our mid-summer break. It might seem surprising that Intel should elect to pull out of networking after its x86 had established a strong position in Cloud RAN, but as we explained in that piece two…