Alphawave shares surge over 20% on Qualcomm takeover
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The news: US semiconductor firm Qualcomm agreed to buy UK chip designer Alphawave on Monday, prompting shares in the London-listed company to soar.
The numbers: Qualcomm said on Monday that it will buy Alphawave in a USD2.4 billion ($1.54 billion) all-cash deal, equating to roughly 183 pence per share. The deal amounts to an approximately 96% premium to the company’s share price on March 31.
The deal is around half of the value Alphawave reached when it listed in 2021. On its debut the company’s shares were worth 410 pence per share, valuing the group at £3.1 billion.
The companies said the deal is expected to close in Q1 2026.
Following the announcement, shares in Alphawave surged as much as 24% by midday London time.
The context: The transaction is expected to support Qualcomm’s artificial intelligence objectives by expanding its intellectual property portfolio in data centre and 5G networking.
The sale concludes two months of talks, after Qualcomm first announce it was considering making an offer to buy the UK firm without disclosing any financial details.
The sale is the latest blow to the London Stock Exchange which is struggling to attract and retain listings, particularly in tech, with fintech Wise last week announcing plans to switch its primary listing from London to New York.
What they said: Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated said: “Qualcomm’s advanced custom processors are a natural fit for data center workloads. The combined teams share the goal of building advanced technology solutions and enabling next-level connected computing performance across a wide array of high growth areas, including data center infrastructure.”
The sources: Qualcomm statement, FT, Bloomberg, WSJ
