Last week chip maker Broadcom unveiled an offer to acquire Qualcomm for $130 billion. Today Qualcomm replied with a firm no. And by firm, I mean, “maybe if you paid us more.”
It’s not hard to understand why Broadcom made the offer. The company has an extensive portfolio of products, but there’s not a huge amount of overlap with Qualcomm. While Broadcom is best known for its networking solutions, Qualcomm is one of the dominant players in the smartphone CPU and GPU space. Combining the two companies would create a serious powerhouse in the low-power chip space.
Whether the deal would be approved by regulators is an open question, but it’s one that may go unanswered, since Qualcomm is rejecting the unsolicited acquisition offer.
Technically, it’s still up to Qualcomm’s shareholders to decide whether to reject the deal. But with the board of the company unanimously recommending against, it seems unlikely to go through… at least at the current price.
While $130 billion is a lot of money, Qualcomm’s board says the offer undervalues the company, which is currently expanding beyond smartphones and into other markets including automotive, Internet of Things, and networking.
Add a larger golden parachutes and see how fast the deal gets approved.
Yay
Looks like Qualcomm is playing hardball. Though before the acquisition leaks, Qualcomm’s stock was on a downward spiral. I guess that’s what happens when you’re getting sued across the world where your main source of revenue may be taken away.
I wonder if Qualcomm is going to split itself and sell in pieces to avoid regulatory issues.