Investors in Qualcomm demand higher share price from Broadcom

Broadcom's overtures to buyout Qualcomm have been rejected

Qualcomm is insisting on an extra $10 a share from chipmaker giant Broadcom, Bloomberg reports.

Some investors believe that the path is still open for the mega-merger to go ahead, if Broadcom coughs up a more generous bid.

Daniel O'Keefe, a fund manager of the $3.1bn Artisan Global Value Fund, which owns Qualcomm stock, told Bloomberg:

"We would be very interested in evaluating an offer that begins with an 8. The board should urge Broadcom to come back with a higher bid."

Broadcom's CEO Hock Tan is no stranger to massive acquisition deals, with two of his largest being Broadcom Corp. for $37bn and Brocade Communications Systems Inc. for $5.9bn (which has yet to close).

Qualcomm's rejection this week is unlikely to be Broadcom's last bite at the cherry.

Qualcomm recently rejected a mega $103bn buyout bid from rival Broadcom, closing the lid on what would have been the biggest tech acquisition ever.

Chipmaker Qualcomm's public rationale is that the offer "dramatically undervalues" the deal and "comes with significant regulatory uncertainty."

Broadcom's offer came with valuation of $70 per share for Qualcomm. That's down from its five year high of $81.6 in mid-2014.

However, in more recent years Qualcomm has gone through some turbulence, which has decreased the value of its shares to below $70.

Looming large over the firm is an ongoing legal battle with Apple Inc. and regulatory actions around the world, threatening its licensing business, which accounted for $5.1bn of Qualcomm's pre-tax profits in its fiscal 2017.