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Semiconductor giant Broadcom secures $100 billion for mega Qualcomm bid

Potential $121 billion deal would be the technology sector's biggest ever

Date Type Companies involved Size
February 15th, 2018 other Broadcom
Qualcomm
$100,000m
Semiconductor giant Broadcom secures $100 billion for mega Qualcomm bid

Global semiconductor firm Broadcom has signed committed financing agreements to the tune of up to $100 billion as it looks to acquire chipmaker Qualcomm.

A group of 12 financial institutions have agreed to provide credit facilities for the deal, including BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, affiliates of Deutsche Bank AG, J.P. Morgan, Mizuho, MUFG, SMBC, Wells Fargo, Scotiabank, BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley.

The deals include a $5 billion revolving credit facility and bridge financing, and investment funds affiliated with Silver Lake, KKR and CVC have agreed to provide $6 billion of convertible note financing to fund the transaction and working capital post-acquisition.

You may recognise the name Silver Lake, a private equity firm that last year invested $400 million into game engine provider Unity.

Broadcom’s cash-and-stock bid for Qualcomm is worth a combined $82 per share.

Hostile takeover looming?

Since the announcement, Reuters reports that Qualcomm has met with Broadcom to discuss a $121 billion bid.

So far Qualcomm has resisted Broadcom’s overtures, though an upcoming shareholder vote on March 6th for the former could potentially see the majority of its board of directors replaced could open the door for a hostile takeover.

If the mega-deal goes through it will be the biggest acquisition ever in the technology sector.

Qualcomm is one of the biggest mobile technology companies in the world and develops chips such as the Snapdragon series of processors that are used in many of the top smartphones in the world.


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Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.