Broadcom completed its re-domiciliation process and is now officially an American company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, the tech giant said Thursday. The move that was initially announced by President Donal Trump himself late last year is widely believed to have been prompted by the firm’s plan to avoid harsh regulatory scrutiny of its Qualcomm takeover attempt, yet the deal still ended up being blocked by Washington on national security grounds, having been effectively ended with a presidential order that concluded a four-month drama between the two firms in mid-March.
Today’s Broadcom was created through a merger of Irvine-based Broadcom Corporation and Avago Technologies, with the former purchasing the firm in 2016 but retaining its name and moving its main headquarters to Singapore. Avago’s San Jose offices still served as the new Broadcom’s co-headquarters but will now be the company’s sole HQ moving forward, the chipmaker said. While the re-domiciliation is believed to have been started due to Qualcomm, Broadcom never officially confirmed that speculation and made no mentions of the San Diego-based semiconductor firm in its Thursday announcement either. While the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States stopped Broadcom’s attempt to acquire Qualcomm, the panel doesn’t have any jurisdiction over the company following its stateside return. Another bid for Qualcomm still remains highly unlikely due to the manner in which the original takeover episode ended but many industry watchers expect Broadcom to continue with its aggressive M&A strategy moving forward and may announce new bids as early as this year.
Broadcom President and Chief Executive Officer Hock E. Tan called the company’s return to the U.S. “an important milestone” and reiterated his November statement made during his visit to the White House that “America is once again the best place for Broadcom to do business.” As a significant portion of the technology juggernaut’s operations were already ran out of San Jose, no impact on its everyday activities or workforce is expected as a result of the move, the firm said. Broadcom presently employs more than 8,300 people across 35 states and has committed to invest $3 billion in national R&D and $6 billion in stateside manufacturing on an annual basis following its re-domiciliation.