NXP really had no Cortex-A solutions before acquiring Freescale, and Freescale's i.MX series hasn't been in a phone for years, if at all. They did have some early wins in mobile books, but not much more.
NXP is now targeting the i.MX line for automotive HMI/IVI use. The automotive-class chip domain has always been a specialty of NXP (nee Freescale nee Motorola Automotive nee Motorola Semiconductor)
But I think NFC chipsets are noise in this acquisition, I think this is all about QCOM missing the boat on automotive and buying their way into this market via NXP.
The real loser here is Intel who really doesn't have a compelling automotive story (aside from maybe Altera) and risks loosing to QCOM in handsets AND automotive.
Automotive isn't just about the application processor showing rear-camera video and 3D maps, there are a lot of other pieces needed and Moto/Freescale has had that market share for a very long time (at least with the American automakers).
Buying NXPI (and its many technologies) gives QCOM an escape path to diversify away from a maturing mobile handset market, with many foreign manufacturers in countries with a different view on IP.