This past week, there were some pretty interesting things coming out in the Broadcom/Qualcomm potential acquisition story. Broadcom started on Monday, giving Qualcomm a final “best” offer for acquiring the company, for roughly $82 per share. Qualcomm then decided on Thursday that it would not accept the offer, but did note that it was willing to meet with Broadcom and talk, in a letter sent to the company’s CEO. Now, apparently, Qualcomm isn’t able to meet with Broadcom until Tuesday, and it’s leaving Broadcom’s CEO “astonished” that Qualcomm was not willing to meet over the weekend.
The interesting part about Qualcomm not wanting to meet until Tuesday, is the fact that it would be after Broadcom meets with Glass Lewis and Qualcomm’s meeting with ISS. Broadcom’s CEO, Hock Tan noted in his letter to Qualcomm that he would like to meet with the company “promptly”. But Qualcomm apparently has other plans there. If this acquisition were to go through, it would be the biggest semiconductor acquisition ever, and tremendously consolidate the semiconductor industry. Keep in mind the fact that Qualcomm recently agreed to acquire NXP Semiconductors, and that deal is still pending approval in some regions. So Broadcom would technically be picking up two major semiconductor companies.
Broadcom’s acquisition of Qualcomm is actually a hostile one. Qualcomm did not put itself up for sale and had no reason to be up for sale – considering it just bought NXP Semiconductors. But Broadcom is wanting to get Qualcomm, likely due to its patent portfolio and it’s presence in mobile. However, Qualcomm is adamant that if Broadcom were to acquire the company, it would lose two of its biggest customers. It’s unclear who those two customers are, but it’s likely that one of them is Samsung. Currently, Samsung Semiconductor or SSI, manufacturers Qualcomm’s high-end chipsets, the Snapdragon 835 (and previously the Snapdragon 820/821). So that would be a big blow to Qualcomm. Its other big customers include Apple (who has moved towards using Intel’s modems in its iPhones), as well as Xiaomi. Broadcom’s current offer for Qualcomm is $82 per share, which is broken down as $60 per share of Qualcomm’s stock and then $22 per share of Broadcom stock.