Intel might be looking at buying out Broadcom, following the latter's pursuit of Qualcomm. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Intel is seeing the potential Broadcom – Qualcomm merger as a “serious competitive threat”. To counter this, the company is looking at various steps it can take including the acquisition of Broadcom. In the aftermath of this report by WSJ, Broadcom shares surged by 7 percent on Friday to $271.50 and Intel and Qualcomm shares took a dip of 1 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.
In a statement given to WSJ, Intel said, “We do not comment on rumours or speculation related to M&A. That being said, we have made important acquisitions over the past 30 months — including Mobileye and Altera — and our focus is on integrating those acquisitions and making them successful for our customers and shareholders.”
Broadcom has been trying to acquire Qualcomm for a while now and it recently upped the offer from $117 to $121 billion. However, Qualcomm’s Board of Directors rejected the offer saying that it undervalues the company. It is notable that the Qualcomm’s Chairman, Paul Jacobs, did not completely strike out the prospect of a deal. However, with Intel also looking to make a move, it seems that the deal might have yet another opposition besides US Government regulators. There have been reports that the US Treasury Department is not worried that a merger might Weaken US’ hold on wireless technologies and China might get the upper hand.
That being said, Intel's involvement might complicate the matter even further. Intel’s other fall back include smaller acquisitions to compete with the alliance that may form if Broadcom acquires Qualcomm. The US-based chip maker has almost double the market share of Broadcom with a valuation of $236.85 billion compared to Broadcom’s $104.1 billion.