Love letters: The Tipline for 12 February 2018

Money can’t buy love, but it could still buy Qualcomm. The chipmaker last Thursday said that a reverse termination fee for a failed Broadcom merger probably couldn’t compensate for the damage it may suffer from a drawn-out period of uncertainty. So on Friday, Broadcom sent a proposed merger agreement that would give $8 billion to Qualcomm if the tie-up can’t get antitrust approval, plus a 6% annual increase in the cash part of the offer to help Qualcomm weather a long competition review. If Qualcomm takes a percentage-of-consideration view of the breakup fee, however, it may still turn up its nose, as $8 billion is less than 7% of the current valuation.