- Chip tech firm agrees buyout by Qualcomm
- US chip giant will pay nearly twice Alphawave’s undisturbed valuation
- Investors offered equivalent of 183p per share in cash or stock equivalents
Perhaps the writing was on the wall that chip firm Alphawave IP (AWE) would not stay on the stock market for long. An inauspicious IPO (initial public offering) in 2021 saw the stock plunge nearly 20% on its market debut, wiping close on £500 million off its £3.1 billion listing valuation.
Alphawave designs high-speed data transmission technology and then licences it to semiconductor designers and manufacturers, a model pioneered by Cambridge-based ARM (ARM:NASDAQ), the microchip architecture designer that was once the UK’s biggest listed tech company.
DATACENTRE EXPANSION
It’s a business that clearly has value to Qualcomm (QCOM:NASDAQ), the US chip giant that has agreed to pay almost twice Alphawave’s undisturbed price, offering investors either 0.01662 of a new Qualcomm share, 0.00964 of a new Series A Qualcomm Exchangeable Security per Alphawave share, or $2.48 (183p) in straight cash.
Qualcomm said the deal will support its expansion into data centres by integrating Alphawave’s connectivity and compute technologies with its existing processor platforms.
The exchangeable securities look a little complex. Unlisted and non-transferable during a four-year lock-up period, they will be gradually convertible into Qualcomm shares across 16 quarterly release dates. Interestingly, CEO Tony Pialis, along with senior executives Rajeevan Mahadevan and Jonathan Rogers, have all elected for the exchangeable securities in lieu of cash.
