Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York applauded President Donald Trump Tuesday after the commander in chief blocked a foreign company’s takeover of U.S. chip maker Qualcomm.
“Let me say unequivocally, President Trump and his administration made the right decision on blocking Broadcom from taking over Qualcomm,” Schumer said in a Senate floor speech Tuesday.
The two politicians disagree about nearly every issue from immigration and tax reform to gun rights and infrastructure. But Schumer recognized the merger would represent a threat to U.S. technological dominance and praised Trump’s reasons for blocking it. (RELATED: Trump Spikes Massive Foreign Takeover Of Tech Firm)
“We all know that China has been rapacious about trade and very smart. They look for places where they can steal our best technology,” Schumer added.
Trump ordered Broadcom and Qualcomm on Monday to suspend all activities related to the takeover after a government investigation determined the merger would impair national security.
The union would have been one of the largest tech mergers in history valued at $117 billion and a rare case of a foreign company’s hostile takeover of a U.S. firm, raising concerns about precedent for overseas companies attempting to seize control of domestic companies.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) — a secretive body comprised of several cabinet members and the secretary of the treasury as its chairman — investigated Broadcom’s plan to takeover Qualcomm’s board through stock purchases and proxy votes in early 2018.
The Treasury Department had both classified and unclassified reasons the merger should be investigated, the department said. Qualcomm is the largest maker of critical semiconductors that power electronic devices from servers to mobile phones and is a global leader in developing 5G networks. It also has classified contracts with the Department of Defense and other agencies, according to the Treasury Department.
“Qualcomm has become well-known to, and trusted by, the U.S. government,” the Treasury Department said in a March 6 letter. “Having a well-known and trusted company hold the dominant role that Qualcomm does in the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure provides significant confidence in the integrity of such infrastructure as it relates to national security.”
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