Chip Deals Are Going to Get a Lot Harder to Pull Off
A growing trend of failed deals shows that semiconductor acquisitions aren’t getting any easier, with national security concerns and increasing government restrictions scuttling plans.
Governments are tightening regulations.
Photographer: Krisztian BocsiNvidia Corp.’s aborted attempt to buy British semiconductor company Arm Ltd. isn’t the only chip deal to fail at the hands of regulators, yet its high-profile defeat portends a tough outlook for mergers and acquisitions in what has become one of the world’s most politicized industries.
GlobalWafers Co., a Taiwanese maker of the sliced silicon upon which chips are produced, last week called off its planned $5 billion purchase of Germany’s Siltronic AG. The takeover had received regulatory approval in various nations, including China, but was blocked by Berlin for unspecified reasons.