Broadcom’s hostile merger with Qualcomm is in troubled waters yet again

What should’ve been a bitter but yet unchurning business event, has now become a top security concern to the US Government. The deal began on November 6th, 2017, when Broadcom Ltd made a $70 per share offer to Qualcomm’s stockholders, which was rejected by Qualcomm’s board of directors stating that the offer was an undervalue to the company’s worth. Broadcom then raised the offer price to $82 per share, thus applying immense pressure on Qualcomm’s stakeholders and stockholders.

A meeting with Qualcomm’s stakeholders and board of directors to vote for the decision was to be conducted on March 6th of 2018, but an intervention from the U.S. Government has delayed this judgment day, putting it on hold, causing an unfathomable perception of the entire affair.

The U.S. Government fears that Broadcom would discard much of the R&D activities conducted by Qualcomm and channel all its focus on making quick profits. This combined with a lack of faith in a foreign entity like Broadcom to take over the domain of Smartphone chip manufacturing, which deals with handling sensitive information of billions of people on an everyday basis has led the US government to stall the deal.

Besides these concerns, one major annoyance that overshadows everything else is the void that the merger would leave in the upcoming 5G technology race, as a result of which Chinese competitors like Huawei would exploit this void and lead the 5G battlefront.

The outcome of this hostile acquisition, if it takes place will decide the fate of millions if not billions of people across the world, as ultimately, Smartphone consumers will be the beneficiaries or victims of this colossal merger.