Apple and others are already divesting from Qualcomm and have been for some time. This merger most likely won't affect this situation. Apple will most likely effect the merger. Imagine buying up a company that is going to soon lose one of, if not, its biggest customer.

>or more of a merger in practice.

This my thinking as well. Qualcomm's product portfolio is on par or beyond what Broadcom is doing. I imagine this is an "easy" way to suddenly get world-class ARM and cellular modem products and all the world-class talent behind those products.

Maybe this is also an admission that Broadcom can't compete going forward. From my own experience, Broadcom chips and their firmware are by the far the most buggy and poorest performers I've worked with. Broadcom is the only OEM I know of with "special instructions" to put their products in production. Using a hypervisor? Turns out Broadcom cant write VMQ code, so you need to disable that feature. Using a Broadcom N wifi chip, good luck, as its poorly compatible with others and has endless performance issues. Broadcom bluetooth? Get used to disconnects and interference issues.

This might be a "buy to survive" attempt by Broadcom.