American semiconductor manufacturer, Broadcom, has offered to buy another US rival - Qualcomm - in the largest-ever tech buyout deal in history.
Reportedly, Broadcom offered a grand total of $103bn to completely purchase the American silicon on chip manufacturer at price of $70 per share.
If this deal goes ahead, it would be the largest-ever acquisition in the history of the technology and electronics manufacturing sector.
Broadcom believes that through acquiring Qualcomm it can broaden its portfolio and better compete with its other competitors, as well as deliver additional value for its stockholders.
“We would not make this offer if we were not confident that our common global customers would embrace the proposed combination,” said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan.
“With greater scale and broader product diversification, the combined company will be positioned to deliver more advanced semiconductor solutions for our global customers and drive enhanced stockholder value.”
For its part, Qualcomm has confirmed that it is reviewing the bid, however, would not say whether or not it was interested in the deal until its board had been fully consulted.
Should the two companies merge into one giant, they would become the third-largest player in the silicon chip manufacturing industry after Intel and Samsung.
With this industry continuing to experience massive growth, especially in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) chips, companies stand to gain massive profits by moving fast to consolidate against their rivals.
While the size of the deal is unprecedented, both companies themselves are already in talks to buy out additional competitors.
Broadcom is waiting for regulatory approval to buy Brocade, while Qualcomm, for its part, is in talks to buy NXP Semiconductors.
Moreover, Qualcomm is mired in a long-running legal battle with Apple over royalties payments, something which is not expected to be resolved anytime soon.
These factors, as well as the unprecedented scale of the buyout, make it a very big ‘if’ that the deal will ever actually go ahead.
Broadcom will not need to convince just Qualcomm’s board, but also powerful international regulators, who would oppose anticompetitive consolidation of this critical market.