Semi-conductor group Alphawave is latest tech company to quit London listing as it agrees £1.8bn takeover
The Gresham Street headquartered company told shareholders this morning it had finally struck a deal with its suitor after an extension for the takeover deadline was extended for the fifth time last week.
Anglo-Canadian Alphawave listed in London in May 2021 when it sold £856 million of shares in an IPO valuing it at £3.1 billion.
It is the latest in a stream of tech companies to quit their London listings. Last week fintech Wise said it is switching its primary listing to America.
The deal overshadowed the launch of London Tech Week which was attended by Keir Starmer and Nvidia boss Jensen Huang.
Darius McDermott, managing director at investment research agency FundCalibre said:“It’s a telling contrast: the Prime Minister courts Nvidia’s Jensen Huang just as another UK tech success story, Alphawave, is set to be acquired by an American buyer.
“Our view is the government must prioritise policies that support domestic UK capital markets – not kill them. They are critical for a well-functioning economy and society. For too long, the government has neglected, overregulated and taxed them, driving liquidity and investment out of the UK.”
Alphawave, which is advised by Goldman Sachs and BMO, originally confirmed it was in talks about a sale as long ago as 1 April. But it has repeatedly pushed back the so called 'put up or shut up' deadline.
Under the terms of the now agreed acquisition Alphawave shareholders will receive $2.48 in cash for each share, equivalent to 183 p. It represents a 96% premium to the share price before the start of takeover speculation.
Alphawave shareholders have an option to receive the cash in sterling or in new Qualcomm shares at a rate of 0.01662 Qualcomm shares for each Alphawave share held.
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There is also a further alternative of 0.00964 of a New Series A Qualcomm Exchangeable Security and 0.00698 of a New Series B Qualcomm Exchangeable Security for each Alphawave share.
Tony Pialis, President and chief executive officer of Alphawave, said:"Qualcomm's acquisition of Alphawave represents a significant milestone for us and an opportunity for our business to join forces with a respected industry leader and drive value to our customers.
“By combining our resources and expertise, we will be well-positioned to expand our product offerings, reach a broader customer base, and enhance our technological capabilities. Together, we will unlock new opportunities for growth, drive innovation, and create a leading player in AI compute and connectivity solutions. For our shareholders, the Alphawave Board is pleased that Qualcomm's offer provides an opportunity to realise compelling value for their shares."
Cristiano Amon, President and chief executive officer of Qualcomm, said:"Under Tony's leadership Alphawave has developed leading high-speed wired connectivity and compute technologies that are complementary to our power-efficient CPU and NPU cores. Qualcomm's advanced custom processors are a natural fit for data centre 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 centre infrastructure."