How Nvidia's failed Arm deal compares to tech's biggest M&A upsets

Nvidia's planned $40 billion acquisition of Arm, the British semiconductor manufacturer owned by SoftBank, was officially declared dead this week, the latest in a long list of failed tech mergers.

The deal, which was first signed in 2020, would have been the largest semiconductor takeover in history. However, due to a barrage of red tape coming from regulators across three continents, it has the dubious honor of instead being one of the biggest tech M&A failures.

With regulators expected to tighten their grip on merger activity in the year ahead, it is unlikely to be the last big M&A upset for would-be dealmakers in the tech sector. Below are some of the other high-profile tech deals that have turned sour over the past decade, either due to regulatory reasons or other insurmountable hurdles.

Qualcomm/Broadcom—$117B (2018)

Semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom launched a bid to buy rival Qualcomm in late 2017, ultimately agreeing on a $117 billion price tag early the following year. At the time, the deal was seen as a foreign takeover since Broadcom, now redomiciled in the US, was based in Singapore. Government regulators feared that the deal, which was announced in the midst of a bitter trade war between the US and China, would undermine the former's lead in developing 5G technology and give China the upper hand. Then-US President Donald Trump eventually signed an executive order blocking the deal on national security grounds.

NXP Semiconductors/Qualcomm—$44B (2018)

Just a few months after being the target of a record failed merger, Qualcomm was again a casualty of souring China-US relations after it attempted to buy Asian rival NXP Semiconductors for $44 billion. This time it was Chinese regulators' turn to block a merger, insisting that the decision was about antitrust issues rather than US rivalry.

T-Mobile US/Iliad—$15B (2014)

French telecom group Iliad surprised the market with a bid to buy a controlling stake in Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile US for $15 billion in cash in July 2014. The deal initially valued the carrier at $29.5 billion but was rejected as too low. Despite making a sweetened offer, as part of a consortium with two private equity backers, Iliad eventually abandoned the deal that October.

Five9/Zoom—$14.7B (2021)

Video conferencing giant Zoom revealed in July 2021 that it had agreed to acquire call center software business Five9 in an all-stock deal worth $14.7 billion. The intention was to combine Five9's "contact center-as-a-service" product with Zoom's platform. However, the two companies released a joint statement two months later saying the deal had to be terminated after it failed to secure enough votes from Five9's shareholders. Even with a green light, the takeover would still have faced scrutiny in the US on national security grounds, as Five9 has operations both in Russia and China. The two companies have continued to provide integration support between their respective services.

KLA-Tencor/Lam Research—$10.6B (2016)

US-listed semiconductor manufacturer Lam Research agreed to buy rival KLA-Tencor for $10.6 billion in 2015 amid a spate of industry consolidation. The deal received shareholder approval the following February, but the US Department of Justice raised concerns about the merger’s impact on competition. It was reported that the combined entity would control 42% of the wafer fabrication equipment market. Ultimately, the two companies scrapped  the merger a year after it was announced.

Related read: SoftBank, Nvidia and the growing burdens facing tech mergers

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