Broadcom has spent the past few months attempting to purchase Qualcomm – after Qualcomm purchased NXP Semiconductors. Qualcomm was not up for sale, so this is a hostile bid by Broadcom, who has been able to get Qualcomm to the negotiation table. However, the US government now has a few issues with Broadcom potentially purchasing Qualcomm. Which resulted in Broadcom writing a letter to the US Congress today, citing that it would not sell national security assets to foreign firms, and that it would invest around $6 billion in manufacturing in the US.
In this letter, Broadcom outlined that it plans to invest $3 billion in research and engineering, in addition to the $6 billion for manufacturing in the US. These numbers are also annually, and should bring quite a few jobs to the US. Broadcom did not cite it’s current spending numbers between it and Qualcomm, so it’s hard to see whether this would be an increase or a decrease from current numbers. Recently, the US government has expressed concerns over Chinese companies doing business in the US. While Broadcom isn’t technically a Chinese company, since it is based in Singapore, it still falls in that category. The government has recently taken aim at Huawei Technologies, particularly its network side of its business. This has affected wireless carriers options for building out a 5G network in the coming years.
Qualcomm will be holding its annual shareholder meeting on April 5, after being delayed 30 days due to the recently announced CFIUS investigation that started this week. Qualcomm also announced today that it was discontinuing the role of “executive chairman”, and has named a new chairman to its board of directors. Qualcomm is looking to get onto shareholders good side, as it approaches the April 5 shareholder meeting, in which it is hoping that shareholders are on its side in its fight with Broadcom. These talks between Qualcomm and Broadcom are likely to continue for the next few months, even after the shareholder meeting that Qualcomm is putting on next month. Broadcom has already issued a few different quotes for purchasing the company, and likely won’t back down any time soon.