Since last June165438+1October, the acquisition of Qualcomm, an American chip manufacturer by semiconductor giant Broadcom, has made a lot of noise, and there has been a new trend. On 12 local time, US President Trump vetoed the acquisition with a total amount of11700 million US dollars on the grounds of national security.
It is considered to be the largest acquisition in the semiconductor industry.
According to the White House official website news, Trump said in the executive order issued on June 5438+02 that there is reliable evidence to believe that Broadcom may take actions that endanger US national security by purchasing Qualcomm. The order said that Qualcomm should give up the acquisition "immediately and permanently" and banned any plan of merger between Qualcomm and Broadcom. In addition, all 65,438+05 candidates nominated by Broadcom are ineligible for the board of directors of Qualcomm.
Trump's decision was made on the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS). The committee mentioned that it was worried that Broadcom's acquisition of Qualcomm would reduce R&D expenditure, thus weakening the competitive advantage of Qualcomm and even the United States in the next generation of wireless communication technology. Qualcomm has a large number of 3G and 4G network technology patents, and also has a strong position in 5G technology.
Broadcom was originally an American company. It was acquired by Singapore company Anhuagao in 20 16 and its headquarters moved to Singapore. At present, Broadcom is accelerating the relocation of its headquarters from Singapore to the United States for reasons such as evading CFIUS censorship.
Last June, 5438+065438+ 10, Broadcom announced its plan to acquire Qualcomm, with a total amount exceeding13 billion US dollars, which was regarded as the largest acquisition in the history of the global semiconductor industry. Qualcomm immediately refused, and the game between the two sides intensified. In February this year, Qualcomm accelerated its acquisition of NXP, another semiconductor company, but this did not satisfy Broadcom, which reduced its bid for Qualcomm. At the same time, the news of Intel's "yellow bird behind" also spread. According to foreign media reports, Intel is considering a series of acquisition plans in response to Broadcom's acquisition of Qualcomm. If the merger is successful, Intel may make an offer to Broadcom.
Broadcom strongly opposes the statement that it endangers national security.
It is believed that the Trump administration temporarily blocked the deal. It is not difficult to see that the risk of censorship faced by foreign companies will increase in the future. Qualcomm said it had received an executive order from the president, and Broadcom strongly opposed the idea that the acquisition would endanger the national security of the United States.
Earlier, British media reported that Qualcomm was inclined to reject this proposal, because the other side's bid was too low and full of risks, and the regulator might refuse to approve the deal.
How does this deal affect China? If Broadcom buys Qualcomm, it may form a monopoly in many fields of communication industry. According to the Beijing News, some insiders mentioned that this will increase the patent cost of domestic mobile phones, which domestic manufacturers do not want to see. For a long time, China's chip market has been dominated by overseas giants, PC chips are in the hands of Intel and AMD, and mobile phone chips are produced by companies such as Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung.
Wang Shuyi, a semiconductor industry analyst, said yesterday that he was not optimistic about the deal. The two companies are so big and involve too many aspects. If they really enter the integration stage, it will be a test. For most suppliers, including the reaction of other competitors, they should be unwilling to see the conclusion of this merger for fear of industry monopoly.