Broadcom’s History Of Big Acquisitions: Wins And Fails

Broadcom has a history of making large, multi-billion-dollar acquisitions of global IT companies who are already established in the market on a worldwide basis.

In late 2019, Broadcom acquired Symantec’s $2.5 billion Enterprise Security business for a whopping $10.7 billion. Broadcom enhanced its investment around the Symantec enterprise security endpoint, web and data loss protection products, while scaling down investment in other areas where the return was not as profitable.

In late 2018, Broadcom completed its acquisition of software giant CA Technologies for nearly $19 billion in an all-cash deal. The goal with the deal was to build one of the “world’s largest infrastructure technology” companies, said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan at the time.

Additionally, in 2016, Broadcom purchased networking and storage hardware giant Brocade Communications for $5.5 billion.

However, it is key to note that some major attempted acquisitions have fallen through for Broadcom in recent years.

Last year, it was reported that Broadcom was in talks to acquire big data analytics company SAS Institute for somewhere in the range of $15 billion to $20 billion. Last July, the deal ultimately fell through due to reports of SAS Institute’s co-founders changing their minds.

Additionally in 2018, Broadcom withdrew its whopping $117 billion bid to acquire fellow chip giant Qualcomm after receiving pushback from the U.S. government under the former President Donald Trump administration.

The Takeaway : Broadcom has a history of making big acquisitions, yet the company hasn’t pulled the trigger on a major acquisition since 2019.