QCOM QUALCOMM Inc

By Tripp Mickle 

Qualcomm Inc. ruled out a revival of its abandoned takeover deal for NXP Semiconductors NV, a day after the White House said China would reconsider the merger as part of the truce in their broad trade battle.

Qualcomm in July scrapped the $44 billion planned purchase of Dutch chip maker NXP--first agreed to in late 2016--after a company deadline passed for China to approve the deal. The agreement's demise, which upended a pillar of Qualcomm's strategy, was seen at the time as one of the more prominent consequences in spiraling U.S.-China trade tensions.

On Saturday, after a dinner between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the White House announced Mr. Xi said he would consider again a Qualcomm-NXP merger should the deal be presented. Chinese officials at a press briefing didn't mention that pledge. The dinner followed a summit of the Group of 20 nations in Argentina.

"While we were grateful to learn of President Trump and President Xi's comments about Qualcomm's previously proposed acquisition of NXP, the deadline for that transaction has expired, which terminated the contemplated deal," a Qualcomm spokeswoman said late Sunday. "Qualcomm considers the matter closed and is fully focused on continuing to execute on its 5G roadmap."

A person familiar with the situation said earlier Sunday that NXP was surprised by the White House announcement.

Both San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm and its Dutch counterpart had publicly moved on since abandoning the proposed deal. Qualcomm in September announced it would repurchase $16 billion in shares as part of a plan to buy back some $30 billion in shares after abandoning the takeover.

In an interview in September, NXP Chief Executive Rick Clemmer said the company wouldn't reformulate its strategy and would merely "dust off" the playbook it was following before the Qualcomm deal. He said recent changes--removing a layer of management, combining two divisions and entering the electric-vehicle market with a new product--would help NXP go it alone.

To soothe investors, NXP also announced a new regular quarterly dividend. The initial dividend for this year's fourth quarter was 25 cents per ordinary share.

Stu Woo contributed to this article.

Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 03, 2018 02:42 ET (07:42 GMT)

Grafico Azioni QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Storico
Da Mar 2024 a Apr 2024

Grafico Azioni QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Storico
Da Apr 2023 a Apr 2024