Today chip maker Qualcomm has received an unprecedented offer from Broadcom: to sell the entire company from the giblets for $ 130 billion. The name Qualcomm is well known in Association with the Snapdragon chips, which employ Samsung Galaxy S8, LG V30 and Daydream VR headset Google, and many other gadgets. But the name is Broadcom not so well known to the General public. What kind of name and why the company trying to acquire a competitor?
As Qualcomm, Broadcom — a semiconductor manufacturing company that collects chips and computer components for smartphones, laptops, data centers, consoles, games consoles and much more. Also produces LEDs, displays and Bluetooth adapters. Broadcom is considered a competitor to Qualcomm: according to Fortune, Qualcomm reported an annual revenue of 22 billion dollars compared with 18 billion from Broadcom. In 2016, Broadcom has become the fifth largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world by revenue along with Intel, Samsung and Qualcomm in the top three. For the first time in ten Broadcom was in 2010; at the same time, Qualcomm was in ninth place.
Despite the popularity of the Snapdragon chip manufactured by Qualcomm, Broadcom chips are also used in gadgets from HTC, Google and Apple. In 2012, Broadcom along with Nintendo put a second screen in the Wii U GamePad. Not long ago, Broadcom has begun work on a GPS chip that allows the device to determine the exact position with an accuracy of 30 centimeters.
Earlier this year, as it turned out, the system-on-chip (SoC) Broadcom revealed a security vulnerability, which allowed hackers to intercept the device over Wi-Fi. This bug hurt iPhone users with iOS version 10 and Google Nexus 5, 6, 6X and 6P. Since the exploit is patched.
Since the value of the Qualcomm stock started falling since the beginning of this year, when Apple launched a lawsuit against the chip maker, Broadcom decided to take the opportunity and try to buy a competitor to increase its market share in wireless chips. After rumors of a possible acquisition, Qualcomm shares jumped 3.5% to $ 65 per share. Before the advent of legal problems they were trading at $ 70 per share.
Competitor Qualcomm wants to buy the company for a record $ 130 000 000 000 $
Ilya Hel