Qualcomm Proposes Due Diligence, Price Talks With Broadcom

Qualcomm urged peer Broadcom to enter into direct negotiations on a price for merging the two companies and said they had made progress on regulatory and other deal certainty issues at a meeting last week.

Qualcomm maintained that all of Broadcom's previous offers materially undervalued the company.

"The Board encourages Broadcom to enter into mutual due diligence and price negotiations," Qualcomm said.

Broadcom last week cut its bid for Qualcomm by 4 percent to $117 billion (7.57 lakh crores), after the latter raised the stakes in the chipmaker takeover battle with a sweetened $44 billion agreement to acquire NXP Semiconductors NV.

The move came after Broadcom called the new NXP deal a transfer of value from Qualcomm to NXP shareholders. Broadcom criticised Qualcomm on Wednesday for not liaising with it before raising its NXP bid, as proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services had recommended.

With no new meeting scheduled yet between Qualcomm and Broadcom and tensions between the two rising, a showdown at Qualcomm's shareholder meeting on March 6 looked increasingly likely. Broadcom has put forward six nominees for election to Qualcomm's 11-member board as it seeks to force negotiations.

"Qualcomm's board acted against the best interests of its stockholders by unilaterally transferring excessive value to NXP's activist stockholders," Broadcom said in its statement on Wednesday.

Qualcomm raised its offer for NXP from $110 to $127.50 per share in cash on Tuesday. In exchange, it received binding agreements from nine NXP stockholders that collectively own more than 28 percent of NXP's outstanding shares to support the deal.