Broadcom and Qualcomm are two of the world’s biggest chip makers… and according to a report from Bloomberg, they could soon become one of the world’s biggest chip makers.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, Broadcom is exploring the possibility of buying Qualcomm.

Update: It’s official. Broadcom has made a $130 billion offer to acquire Qualcomm, but it’s not at all clear if Qualcomm will accept.

The move would further consolidate the market. Qualcomm is currently in the process of absorbing NXP Semiconductor… which acquired Freescale Semiconductor a few years ago.

Broadcom, meanwhile, has undergone some big changes itself recently. The company currently known as Broadcom Limited was formerly a California-based business known as Broadcom Corporation until it was acquired last year by the Singapore-based Avago Technologies. This week the company announced that it was moving its primary headquarters back to the United States.

There’s certainly some overlap in the Broadcomm and Qualcomm’s areas of expertise, but a merger would bring together an intriguing set of intellectual property under one roof.

Broadcom produces chips for a wide range of applications. The company is probably best known for its solutions for wired and wireless networking products, but Broadcom also makes CPU and graphics chips like those used in the Raspberry Pi line of computers.

Qualcomm, meanwhile, also produces wireless chips. But that US-based company is better known for making the processors that power most flagship Android phones.

Now what do you think the combined company would be called? Odds are that it’d just be called Broadcom or Qualcomm… but as two companies that already have two-syllable names ending with some variation of “com,” there are all sorts of intriguing possibilities for name mashups

  • Broadqualcomm
  • Qualbroadcom
  • Broadcomm
  • Qualcommm
  • BqRuOaAlDcCoOmM

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19 replies on “Bloomberg: Broadcom may buy Qualcomm”

      1. Seriously?????? You think near-monopolies are a good thing for the consumer?

        Do you really want Intel to control an even greater percentage of the chip market?

  1. Qualcomm Market Cap in Jan. 2014: 123 B
    Broadcom Market Cap in Jan. 2014: ~13 B

    Now Broadcom has a larger market, and plans to buyout Qualcomm, Amazed at the pace of changes.

    1. Well, that’s explained by Avago buying Broadcom and then renaming Avago to Broadcom. It’s not like the “original” Broadcom’s market grew really fast. Not really “amazing” in the context of your statement.

      1. Yeah, It’s really that Avago has been buying many companies at a fairly quick pace. The pace of Avago’s acquisitions is what I’d consider amazing.

        I’m interested in what Avago’s plans are with all these acquisitions.

  2. I sincerely hope Broadcom doesn’t buy Qualcomm. Broadcom close-source some of their WiFi and Bluetooth drivers. It’s a pain to get them to work on Linux.

      1. What is?
        Intel still has its quirks. Nvidia’s been hostile. AMD doesn’t have the R&D funds.

        The “free” part of open-source hurts the Linux Ecosystem the most

  3. They could also maintain names and focus on their respective segments.

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