Broadcom Corp. Chief Executive Scott McGregor met with his acquisition-minded counterpart at Germany’s Infineon Technologies AG a few months back, according to reports in Forbes and a German newspaper.
The meeting by McGregor likely was a courtesy. Broadcom founders and dominant owners Henry Samueli and Henry Nicholas have indicated they have no plans to sell the maker of communications chips.
Infineon boss Wolfgang Ziebart also reportedly met with the head of Broadcom rival Agere Systems Inc.
Both sets of talks were fruitless, according to weekly German newspaper WirtschaftsWoche.
Infineon, the former chip arm of Siemens AG, plans to spin off its Qimoda unit to finance acquisitions.
With chips in wireless phones, video iPods, networking gear and other hot segments, Broadcom’s coveting by a big chipmaker isn’t surprising.
Samueli, Broadcom’s chairman and research chief, and Nicholas, the company’s former chief executive, control 60% of the company’s voting shares.
Their domineering stakes make any sale of Broadcom unlikely. Samueli has said he wants to grow Broadcom into a giant chipmaker.
Nicholas left in 2003 amid personal issues and changes at the company. Since then, he’s voted his 29% stake along with management.
Meanwhile, Broadcom’s shares slipped about 7% on Monday along with other chip stocks.
The catalyst: a Merrill Lynch & Co. study that said the timing of stock options pricing by chip companies was “very advantageous for executives.”
Broadcom itself was cited in a recent report by Financial Research and Analysis for institutional investors that looked at options grants at 100 large companies.
The chipmaker was one of 17 that the report found to be “at risk” for having back-dated option grants during the five-year period ended in 2002.
