President Donald Trump blocked Broadcom’s $142bn hostile bid for rival chip company Qualcomm, saying he was acting to protect the national security of the US.

美国总统唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)封杀了博通(Broadcom)以1420亿美元敌意收购竞争对手芯片公司高通(Qualcomm)的交易，称他这么做是为了保护美国的国家安全。

The unprecedented presidential action to prevent a giant merger before it was even agreed threatened to turn the White House into a pivotal player in corporate dealmaking, while thrusting national security considerations to the centre of the wave of consolidation that has transformed the US chip industry over the past two years.

在一宗大型合并案尚未商妥时美国总统就采取封杀行动，这是史无前例的。它有可能会使白宫变成企业并购交易中的一个关键玩家，同时会让国家安全考量在合并浪潮中扮演核心角色。过去两年，这股合并浪潮已使美国芯片行业发生翻天覆地的变化。

The hostile takeover bid by Singapore-registered Broadcom had already aroused opposition from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, an inter-agency group in Washington that vets foreign acquisitions. However, while Cfius warned of possible national security concerns, it had called for a full investigation only a week ago.

注册于新加坡的博通发起的这次敌意收购，已招致美国外国投资委员会(Cfius)的反对。Cfius是华盛顿的一个跨部门机构，负责审查外资收购项目。然而，尽管Cfius就可能存在的国家安全隐患发出了警告，但它也只是在一周前才呼吁展开全面调查。

The hasty White House intervention appeared to cut off Broadcom’s hopes of sidestepping the deeper national security review. The company said shortly ahead of Mr Trump’s order that it expected to complete a process of “redomiciliation” — turning itself back into a US company — by April 3. It claimed that it was “in all important respects a US company,” with most of its management and operations taking place in the US.

白宫的仓促介入似乎斩断了博通对于绕过更严苛国家安全审查的希望。博通在特朗普下达上述命令之前不久曾表示，公司预计将不晚于4月3日完成“迁册”程序，使自己变回一家美国公司。博通声称，自己“从所有重要方面来看都是一家美国公司”，其大部分管理和运营活动都发生在美国境内。

In the presidential order released on Monday, Mr Trump said there was “credible evidence” to believe that after a purchase of Qualcomm, Broadcom might “take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” He went on to prohibit the deal, and order the companies to “immediately and permanently abandon the proposed takeover of Qualcomm.”

特朗普在周一发布的总统令中表示，有“可信证据”让人相信，博通在收购高通之后可能会“采取有可能危害美国国家安全的行动”。他进而叫停这宗交易，并命令这些公司“立即且永久放弃对高通的拟议收购”。

Qualcomm is one of the largest makers of chips and other technologies for mobile devices, and derives most of its revenues supplying Apple’s iPhone and their Android competitors.

高通是用于移动设备的芯片及其他技术的最大制造商之一，其大部分收入源于向苹果(Apple)的iPhone和对立阵营的Android手机供货。