Broadcom Bid for Qualcomm 5G

Broadcom, a company who makes chips for wired broadband communications, has made a bid to buy Qualcomm for $130 billion.

21:01 08 November 2017

If successful, this could marry up WI-FI and Wireless.

 

While most of its sales now derive from mobile chips used in, for example, smart phones, Qualcom originally became famous for inventing 2G and 3G technology.

 

The release of 5G technology is just around the corner and as this involves wireless technology and wired technology working together, it means if Broadcom is successful with its bid, it along with Qualcom, could provide end to end 5G technology.

 

2017 has proved a bad year from Qualcom amidst its issues with Apple allegedly violating some of its patents.

 

If rumours are to be believed, it is possible that Apple are creating an iPhone without Qualcom components.

 

It is a good time for Broadcom to buy Qualcom due to its company stock falling by 5% this year. This may be in part due to being overtaken by Intel and Samsung as lead chip makers.

 

Within the last week, President Trump has announced that Broadcom will be moving its legal headquarters back to the US.

 

A possible complication in the potential deal is that both Qualcom and Broadcom are in the middle of buying other chipmakers - NPX and Brocade, respectively.

 

If this major deal is to go ahead, it will have been exceeded in size, only by AOL in its $162 billion deal with Time Warner in 1999.