Broadcom, perhaps as early as Monday, is planning to make a $100 billion bid for San Diego-based Qualcomm, which has been having troubles and knock-down fights with its big customer, Apple, this year.

Before rumors of the Broadcom bid rattled the street, Qualcomm stock had been down 16 percent this year, while a popular index of semiconductor stocks had risen 41 percent. Qualcomm stock zoomed 13 percent today (November 3) to $61.81. That puts the value of the company at $91 billion, according to bloomberg.com.

Irwin Jacobs

Thus far, Qualcomm has not commented on the prospective bid.

Broadcom has two headquarters — in Singapore and San Jose. This week, Broadcom pleased President Trump by saying it plans to move its headquarters to America.

Qualcomm has been battling with its blue-chip customer Apple. "Qualcomm faces a multinational legal battle with Apple over Qualcomm's licensing terms to Apple, and Apple is considering dropping Qualcomm from its phones," says reuters.com.

Qualcomm "requires customers like Apple and Samsung to license its patents if they use its chips, typically asking for a percentage of the price of the final device…. Apple has objected to that practice, however, and it has a closer relationship with Broadcom than with Qualcomm. If Broadcom were to acquire Qualcomm's patent portfolio and change the licensing, it could have far-reaching effects on the mobile phone industry."

A combined Broadcom and Qualcomm would make Broadcom the third-largest chipmaker, behind Intel and Samsung, and make it the leader in chips made for smartphones, says bloomberg.com.

It is too early to say if San Diego would lose jobs following a combination with Broadcom. Also, it is too early to say if Broadcom's U.S. headquarters would be San Diego instead of San Jose. However, San Jose is in the middle of Silicon Valley, home of chipmaking, smartphones, and other tech devices.