UPDATED 21:18 EST / JULY 11 2018

INFRA

Moving into software, Broadcom announces $19B acquisition of CA Technologies

More consolidation is coming in the semiconductor market with the news today that Broadcom Inc. has agreed to acquire traditional software giant CA Technologies Inc. for almost $19 billion.

The planned acquisition, which was confirmed by both companies late Wednesday, is Broadcom’s first new acquisition since it was blocked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from pursuing an ambitious $117 billion takeover of larger rival Qualcomm Technology Inc.

White House officials moved to thwart that deal in March, citing national security concerns. The administration said it was worried about allowing U.S.-based Qualcomm to be taken over by a foreign-based firm that could potentially pass on key technology to rival nations such as China.

Broadcom, which was headquartered in Singapore at the time, stated it was planning to relocate to the U.S. in order to allay those national security fears. It has since completed that move, but U.S. officials refused to budge.

Broadcom, which sells computer chip designs that are used for a wide range of applications including data centers and smartphones, will pay CA Technologies’ shareholders $44.50 per share to take over the company, which is a 20 percent premium on its closing share price on Wednesday. Broadcom shares fell by 5.5 percent in after-hours trading, while CA’s share price rose 16 percent.

CA Technologies, founded as Computer Associates in 1976, sells a wide range of information technology systems and software products used in cloud computing, mainframe and virtual machine environments.

“This transaction represents an important building block as we create one of the world’s leading infrastructure technology companies,” Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan said in a statement.

Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told SiliconANGLE that the acquisition was not straightforward, and was most likely aimed at stitching together data center and “internet of things” chips with software to “create an end-to-end IoT ecosystem.”

Asked whether the deal would allowed by U.S. federal regulators, Moorhead said: “I believe they will, unless CA has a prominent position in the military.”

In November, Broadcom completed its acquisition of enterprise storage and networking firm Brocade Communications Systems Inc. in a deal worth $5.9 billion. Broadcom itself has also been the subject of takeover rumors, with reports in March suggesting that Intel Corp. was considering buying the chip maker in what was said to be an effort to discourage it from its pursuit of Qualcomm.

Image: Broadcom

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