First four paragraphs (cause paywall won’t let most people see this).
Chip giant Qualcomm made a takeover approach to rival Intel in recent days, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be one of the largest and most consequential deals in recent years.
A deal for Intel, which has a market value of roughly $90 billion, would come as the chip maker has been suffering through one of the most significant crises in its five-decade history.
A deal is far from certain, the people cautioned. Even if Intel is receptive, a deal of that size is all but certain to attract antitrust scrutiny, though it is also possible it could be seen as an opportunity to strengthen the U.S.’s competitive edge in chips. To get the deal done, Qualcomm could intend to sell assets or parts of Intel to other buyers.
Intel—once the world’s most valuable chip company—had seen its shares drop roughly 60% so far this year before The Wall Street Journal reported on the approach. As recently as 2020, the company had a market value above $290 billion. The stock closed up over 3% Friday after the Journal’s report.
Hello.
As someone who’s in the space and has been around Qcomm and their deals before.
It won’t happen.
They will flirt like you can’t imagine, they will propose, make offers, etc.
But closing the deal? No.
They are very smart, and Intel is too big for them to dismantle and exploit with value.
Their interest is not in Intel belonging to them, but in a large, Intel shaped hole in the market that they can attack, and their discussions are more likely about Intel’s roadmaps so they can understand how they could best exploit Intel’s fall.
They are unlikely to even hire some of Intel’s spoils, maybe a few strategic VPs, but… they’re just smart and ruthless and Intel is the dregs and bloated nowl.
The only way they’d do it is if the government sweetened it such that Intel was basically free, and they could fire as many as they want in a reasonable period, basically letting them own Intel without any cost at all. That is possible depending on how desperate the government is to prevent their fall, but I don’t think anyone can make the right promises in time.