Key insights
- Broadcom CEO Hock Tan's comments on M&A strategy, particularly his interest in acquiring IBM, suggest potential future consolidation in the tech sector. While regulatory hurdles are likely, a move on IBM could significantly alter the competitive landscape for cloud computing and enterprise hardware. This potential deal, if pursued, could impact Broadcom's stock and influence investor sentiment towards large-cap tech M&A.
In a Bloomberg Interview, Hock Tan (CEO of Broadcom) was asked about the M&A strategy which they have deployed extensively over the course of last decade.
Historically, Hock Tan would partner up with Private Equity and using bank leverage to acquire over other companies. Then selling off non-core assets and laying off to pay down the debts quickly.
2016 -> Broadcom (but kept their name, i.e. AVGO tech acquired over Broadcom) 2017 -> BROCADE 2018 -> ca technologies 2019 -> Symantec 2023 -> vmware
Attempted to make a move on Qualcom, but that was blocked on national security reasons:
Then he moved to acquiring over software companies, but there is less love for software now due to LLMs and agents.
Current day, Broadcom sits above $1.5 Trillion market cap still (despite the selloff). But that interview question on M&A, triggered my chain of thoughts given he seems to admit that he face competition from customer own tooling (google going out to other partners) and CISCO in networking for data-center.
That brings us to the M&A playbook, which he likes to use.
Who can he acquire or go after (he knows he might get blocked by regulators just like Qualcom case) but as the saying goes "You miss 100% of the shoots that you didn't take". That said he will probably make an attempt for it even if it fails/gets blocked.
So what does Broadcom lacks (they got TPU/XPU and High Speed Networking in Data-Centre) but those offering still confines them to the operating space of data-centre. And lacks a full-stack offering like CPU and infrastructure.
IBM - makes about $60 billion revenue (FY 2025) annually but market cap is < 300 billion. Compare to Broadcom market cap ~$1.8T, that is close to a 6x difference.
IBM two main growth segments are (consulting division is flat growth)
Hybrid cloud (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and Linux OS is the preferred OS for most server and data-center setup
IBM Z and IBM Tellum chip, basically the mainframe stuff that needs high reliability 365 days). Essentially institution that needs to process lotsa of transactions daily.
Mainframe, are a sticky business, since those mainframe customers doesn't have the same tech giants profile, where they will eventually develop their own custom tooling/solutions.
Tellum chip, can be added into the portfolio of Broadcom to differential itself from x86 and ARM.
Quantum computing stuff, under IBM infrastructure division is a also potential if he can get that commercialise (someday)
So it seems to that there isn't much of a overlap in terms of the core business between Broadcom and IBM and there are synergies, which if Broadcom attempts to make the M&A move would reduce their overall business cyclicality.
Falling back on the mantra of "you miss 100% of the shoots that you didn't take".
- He has to throw the IBM shareholders a "big bone" to get things moving. Part Broadcom stock and cash deal to acquire over IBM. 2. Chances are Hock Tan might make the move but aware of the fact that he gets blocked again by regulators.
Happy to get your thoughts on the M&A play.