Brooke Sutherland, Columnist

Trump Takes Broadcom From Photo-Op to Full Stop

The president's tightening the border for companies as well.

March 13, 2018 at 12:09 AM UTC

Brooke Sutherland is Bloomberg News' Boston bureau chief and writes the Industrial Strength Newsletter. She was previously a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies and an M&A reporter for Bloomberg News.

1520897447_GettyImages-869468030 — Photographer: Martin H. Simon/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the March 19, 2018 issue of businessweek.

Promises of jobs and tax dollars clearly only go so far with President Donald Trump.

In a stunning turn of events late Monday, Trump issued an order blocking Broadcom Ltd. from any potential takeover of Qualcomm Inc., citing "credible evidence" that the company may take actions that could impair national security. This is the same Broadcom that earned a glitzy presidential photo-op in November after announcing plans to relocate to America. The move was widely perceived as an attempt to ease regulatory approval for the pending purchase of Brocade Communications Systems Inc., but Trump only had eyes for the mythical $20 billion of revenue Broadcom was supposed to bring to American towns and workers. How times have changed.

The odds of a completed deal were already low after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. ordered a 30-day stay in Broadcom's attempt to overturn a majority of the board of Qualcomm and force the company into negotiations on its $100 billion offer. In a statement earlier on Monday, CFIUS took Broadcom to task for trying to speed up its planned move to the U.S. without proper notice and warned that it was considering referring the deal to the White House (only the president can actually block a takeover on national security grounds). But Broadcom executives met with CFIUS on Monday afternoon to plead their case.