Following rumors over the weekend, chipmaker Broadcom has today confirmed it has approached wireless chipmaker Qualcomm with an acquisition offer that values the company at $130BN (including $25BN of net debt).
Specifically Broadcom is offering to pay $70.00 per Qualcomm share, with $60.00 being in cash and $10.00 per share in Broadcom shares. It’s intending to use debt financing if it gets agreement for the deal.
Broadcom says the offer represents a 28 per cent premium over the closing price of Qualcomm common stock on November 2, 2017 — aka “the last unaffected trading day prior to media speculation regarding a potential transaction”.
And a premium of 33 per cent on Qualcomm’s “unaffected 30-day volume-weighted average price”.
Although a Nomura Instinet analyst, cited by Reuters, suggests that a $70 per share offer won’t be sufficient for the proposal to fly.
A Qualcomm spokesman contacted by TechCrunch declined to comment on Broadcomm’s proposal at this time. (Although in a press release it has confirmed receipt of the offer, and said its board of directors will assess the proposal to pursue “the course of action that is in the best interests of Qualcomm shareholders”.)
Qualcomm has a (long) pending acquisition, of chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV, in the works — and Broadcom notes that its offer is not dependent on whether or not Qualcomm manages to close with NXP on the currently disclosed terms (it’s offering ~$39BN for the Netherlands-based chipmaker which has a focus on car-related applications and also security-based identification).
In a statement about its proposal, Broadcom president and CEO Hock Tan flagged “greater scale and broader product diversification” as key strategic drivers for the offer.
“The combined company will be positioned to deliver more advanced semiconductor solutions for our global customers and drive enhanced stockholder value,” he added.
Qualcomm’s share price closed at $61.81 on Friday.
The company’s stock recently took a hit after the WSJ reported that Apple planned to drop Qualcomm components in future iOS devices — in favor of Intel chips or possibly MediaTek.