What is covered in today’s insight?
1) How geopolitics is disrupting M&As
2) The key concerns facing executives
3) What this all means for global affairs
Last year, Intel, the US technology giant, ended a push to acquire an Israeli chip firm, Tower Semiconductor, for $5.4 billion. The reason: the deal needed China’s approval. Chinese law requires parties to an M&A to get the greenlight from Beijing if their sales in China exceed $117 million annually.
Last year, Intel pulled in almost $15 billion from China, its biggest market, accounting for 25% of its revenue.
Intel announced the deal in February, 2022. As the global geopolitical climate shifted, and US-China relations took a nosedive, Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelinger, even visited China to iron out any wrinkles.
For almost 18 months, regulators in China refused to sign off. And then, in August, 2023, the deal’s deadline passed. The merger fell apart. And the rest, as they say, is history.
But it isn’t.
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