Qualcomm delayed its clash with Broadcom until April 5, having officially announced it’s pushing back its annual shareholder meeting by an entire month. The gathering that was originally scheduled to take place today is being postponed at a direct request of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury. The national security panel asked for a delay in order to have more time to investigate the proposed consolidation which may be decided on come Qualcomm’s next shareholder meeting where Broadcom will attempt a coup of its board by installing six of its own directorial nominees which would provide it with the voting majority it needs to greenlight the merger.
Broadcom is now expected to extend its $117 billion bid for Qualcomm which is otherwise set to expire in a matter of hours. Qualcomm will technically hold an annual shareholder meeting today but will immediately adjourn it and reschedule it, the San Diego, California-based chipmaker said. Broadcom claimed Qualcomm wasn’t transparent about its recent correspondence with CFIUS, stating the delay request came as a surprise, though the approached party strongly dismissed such claims, having said its unsolicited suitor independently communicated with the national security panel in recent weeks and is now attempting to mislead investors. The Singapore-based semiconductor company is presently in the process of relocating to the United States, with the move being announced prior to the Qualcomm bid last fall by President Trump himself. Broadcom already has a largely American leadership and once its headquarters are moved to the U.S., CFIUS won’t have the jurisdiction to block the merger that technically won’t be considered a foreign investment any longer.
Broadcom is proposing the largest technology merger ever which dwarfs Dell’s $67 billion acquisition of EMC announced in 2015 and completed a year later. Qualcomm is expected to use the extra time CFIUS unexpectedly bought it to work on concluding its $44 billion takeover of Dutch NXP Semiconductors and make progress in regards to its royalty disagreements with Apple. Success on either front would significantly reduce Broadcom’s chances of completing a hostile takeover as it would likely win many investors back to Qualcomm’s side, convincing them the firm is better off on its own.