At the same time, Broadcom is actively bidding for Qualcomm. If Broadcom's acquisition of Qualcomm is successful, Intel will face more powerful competitors. However, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that Intel may not make an acquisition.
According to Wall Street, the premise that Broadcom intends to acquire the case of Qualcomm has become the largest merger and acquisition case in the history of the semiconductor industry and the entire technology industry. The total market capitalization of the two major semiconductor giants will exceed 200 billion US dollars. If the two companies merge successfully, the new company will become only Second largest chip maker in the world behind Intel and Samsung Electronics.
An Intel spokesperson stated: 'We have made important acquisitions in the past 30 months - including Mobileye and Altera - our focus is to integrate these acquisitions and make them successful for our customers and shareholders.' She did not respond to the acquisition of Broadcom.
After the announcement, Intel's share price fell 1% in after-hours trading, and Broadcom's share price rose more than 6%. Qualcomm's share price has not changed much.
However, Broadcom's merger and acquisition case still has variables.
On March 6, US time, Qualcomm announced that it had received a letter from Qualcomm and Broadcom from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The letter states that after review by the US Foreign Investment Commission (CFIUS), Broadcom’s attempt to acquire Qualcomm may constitute a threat to US national security. risk.
The previous day, Qualcomm announced on Monday that according to the CFIUS Directive, Qualcomm had postponed shareholders' and board of directors elections for at least 30 days, and the company's general meeting of shareholders will be postponed until April 5 this year. In addition, Broadcom is expected to win the Qualcomm Board of Directors election All six seats being sought, if Broadcom acquires these seats in the final vote, will have the right to negotiate its acquisition of Qualcomm’s $117 billion.
CFIUS is a federal government committee composed of the heads of 11 government agencies and 5 observers. The members are from the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of State, and the Department of Homeland Security. The US Treasury Secretary serves as chairman of the committee and has the power to stop the acquisition of U.S. companies by foreign companies. Trading, but under normal circumstances, CFIUS review will not begin until the transaction is completed.
Headquartered in Singapore, Broadcom plans to move its headquarters from Singapore to the United States in mid-May this year in order to evade regulatory hurdles caused by mergers and acquisitions of foreign companies and thereby facilitate mergers and acquisitions.
According to the analysis of financial blogger ZeroHedge, CFIUS intervenes in the Qualcomm M&A case, which shows the US government’s serious attitude towards the protection of US intellectual property rights. Qualcomm is not only the largest chip maker in the United States, but also the only one that can compete with foreign manufacturers in 5G technology. Manufacturers, and President Trump listed 5G technology as one of the national security priorities.