Broadcom (AVGO) this morning issued a statement saying if it takes over Qualcomm (QCOM), it will "focus" the company's R&D efforts to "accelerate innovation and R&D," and to "create a stronger combined American company."
The "pledge," as its termed, includes several declarative statements, such as, "Broadcom is in every important respect an American company, with a lineage of great American technology icons like Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Broadcom Corp., and Brocade Communications Systems, Inc."
The one-page release comes after Qualcomm's publication yesterday of a letter from the U.S. Treasury Department that cast aspersions upon Broadcom's style of business, claiming Broadcom takes a "private equity-style direction" that involves reducing investment.
Without mentioning the claims directly, the Broadcom memo today "pledges" several things, including a "pledge to leading 5G," referring to the 5G wireless technology that was mentioned by Treasury as a vital beach-head where the U.S. must remain dominant.
The memo also pledges to make a fund of $1.5 billion for training of future engineers.
Yesterday's letter from Treasury followed Qualcomm applying to the government in January for a pre-emptive CFIUS review of Broadcom's attempted takeover. That review was granted and is now proceeding, and has postponed a planned shareholder meeting of Qualcomm investors that had been set for yesterday, at which Broadcom was asking investors to vote in six Broadcom nominees to give it a majority on Qualcomm's board. The meeting is now scheduled for April 5th, Qualcomm has announced.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
