Qualcomm on Monday released a video starring its senior management team that argues against Broadcom’s bid to acquire the company, vowing to continue resisting the tech giant’s hostile takeover attempt. The 34-minute clip that can be seen below is meant to convince Qualcomm’s stockholders to not support Broadcom’s plan to vote out the approached firm’s existing board at its annual shareholder meeting scheduled to take place on March 6th. The unsolicited suitor previously announced its own nominees for Qualcomm’s board of directors that are prepared to sell the firm, promising to create immense value for investors as part of a $105 billion bid that would lead to the largest acquisition in the history of the tech industry.
Qualcomm strongly argues against such promises, claiming they’re without a foundation and that Broadcom has no clear path to create any kind of additional value in the near term, questioning its ability to do so at all. The newly released video and a brochure accompanying it place a large emphasis on Qualcomm’s currently leading position in a wide range of technology fields, including 5G, mobile chips, modems, and the Internet of Things. Besides deeming Broadcom’s plan to create additional value for stockholders as vague and highly unrealistic, the semiconductor firm’s top management also reiterated its previous point about the difficulty of achieving the proposed merger even if Qualcomm was prepared to sell. Due to the scope of their operations, Qualcomm and Broadcom would likely be subjected to extreme levels of regulatory scrutiny across the world for at least a full year, with no guarantees that the theoretical consolidation would ultimately be approved at all.
Qualcomm is urging shareholders to vote against Broadcom’s board nominees and allow the company’s current management to continue leading the firm independently going forward. The San Diego, California-based tech giant remains convinced it can create significant value on its own, starting with the immediate future and its $38 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors. In an unlikely scenario that China refuses to greenlight the deal, Qualcomm is planning a major stock repurchase as an alternative method of beefing up its market cap this year, the company reiterated. Ultimately, Qualcomm labeled Broadcom’s recent move as a “low-value, high-risk hostile proposal [that] makes no sense” for its existing shareholders.