Alphawave acquisition means another tech firm to leave the LSE

Alphawave IP Group (Alphawave) has been acquired by US chipmaker, Qualcomm.  

The cash offer represents a price of 183 pence per share (a significant premium on the price shares were trading at), which equates to c.$2.4bn. It’s great news for Qualcomm (and its customers) with the acquisition set to “further accelerate and provide key assets for [the firm’s] expansion into data centres”.

Alphawave has a dual headquarter structure; Leeds serves as the corporate/legal HQ for the publicly listed entity (Alphawave IP Group PLC), while its operational HQ is in Toronto. Qualcomm is listed on NASDAQ, so of course the acquisition of Alphawave means we lose another tech firm from the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Alphawave originally chose to list in London due to what it described at the time as being “the incredible technology and semiconductor industry ecosystem” here. Of course, the acquisition now means the chip expertise Alphawave has cultivated (note it also made its own acquisitions in the past – including US-HQ’d, OpenFive) is now in the hands of a US firm.  

In the recent past we have seen various other tech firms leave the LSE, including ARM which delisted in 2016 when acquired by SoftBank but chose to list on NASDAQ rather than return to the LSE when going public again in September 2023.

Meanwhile, UK fintech, Wise, only last week said it would be transferring its primary listing from London to New York. Indeed, figures show that in 2024, we saw the biggest outflow of firms leaving the London market since the financial crisis back in 2009. Broadly speaking, we continue to hear that being based in the US means bigger valuations, better access to capital, and a greater appetite for risk. It's a depressing trend with no signs of a let up.

Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 10:00

Tags: acquisition   chips   semiconductors