>>> Will the merged companies now stop production of PPC [...]?

>> [...] This indicates that the merged companies won't stop PPC production in the near future.

> Has anybody suspected otherwise?

I was replying to the quoted question.

> it is quite likely that the QorIQ series will make a full switch to ARM cores
> for future chip designs sooner rather than later.

One could argue this is already true as all chips of current QorIQ generation (LS series) are ARM-based so far :-)

> Considering that NXP have announced aggressive plans to reduce costs, continuing
> to develop PowerPC- as well as ARM-based QorIQ chips for years to come appears
> to be an improbable scenario.

As far as I have understood the LayerScape architecture, ARM and PPC cores are essentially interchangeable in that. So I don't think the PowerPC chip development costs would be the deciding factor. It's more the costly Power Architecture core development NXP would have to undertake after e6500/e6501 (networking) and e200z9 (automotive) cores that would primarily stand in the way of the cost reducing plans.