A report from Reuters has cited sources saying renowned chipmaker Broadcom could be redomiciled to the US as early as May. Broadcom was originally founded in Irvine, California in 1991 but was later sold to Avago, which is incorporated in Singapore. Officials at Broadcom announced in November 2017 that the company would be moving back to the US at some point in the future, and now it seems a timeframe has been penciled in.
Broadcom Limited is likely moving back to the US to improve the possibility of purchasing Qualcomm. The Singapore-based company has already had an offer of US$121 billion rejected by its rival’s board. By redomiciling to the US, Broadcom will be dealing with concerns raised by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that the acquisition of Qualcomm could create some national security issues.
Qualcomm had revenue of US$23.55 billion in 2016 but received a massive fine of €997 million from the European Commission in 2018 for abusing its dominance of the LTE baseband chipset market. The American-based chipmaker has put forward a revised merger proposal, though, so a deal between the two companies could still be on the cards.