Broadcom Reportedly May Bid to Buy Qualcomm

Broadcom reportedly is considering a bid to acquire rival chipmaker Qualcomm, a deal that could top $100 billion and be the largest in the semiconductor industry.

Shares of San Diego-based Qualcomm rose more than 15 percent at one point during trading Friday after reports surfaced that Broadcom was considering making an unsolicited offer.

Qualcomm rose $6.97, or 12.7 percent, to $61.81 a share, giving it a current market value of $91.3 billion. Broadcom rose $14.13, or 5.5 percent, to $273.63 a share.

Qualcomm and Broadcom declined comment on the reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan has a history of aggressively acquiring companies to bolster his company’s growth.

The reports came one day after Tan held a news conference with President Donald Trump to announce that Broadcom, based in Singapore with a primary U.S. office in San Jose, Calif., plans to move its corporate domicile to the United States.

Broadcom was created last year when Tan’s Avago Technologies bought Irvine, Calif.-based chipmaker Broadcom for $37 billion and then adopted the Broadcom name for the combined company.

Should Broadcom make an offer for Qualcomm, it’s not clear whether Qualcomm would be receptive or whether the deal would be approved by federal antitrust regulators.

It’s also unclear what such a deal would mean for Qualcomm’s current bid of nearly $40 billion to purchase NXP Semiconductors, a deal that’s facing stiff regulatory reviews in Europe and opposition from some investors who contend that the bid undervalues NXP.