Apple has bought Passif Semiconductor, a Silicon Valley-based wireless chip developer, reports Jessica Lessin (http://tinyurl.com/mp29ehf), quoting unnamed “people briefed on the deal.

“It isn’t clear how much Apple paid,” Lessin — a former writer for “The Wall Street Journal” says. “The people said Apple tried to buy Passif a few years earlier for a price in the mid-tens-of-millions of dollars. Presumably it would be higher now.”

Apple, of course, had nothing to say on the matter beyond, “Apple buys small technology companies from time to time.”