American investors are set to acquire three UK-listed companies on the London Stock Exchange worth over £5bn amidst declining share prices, making British firms susceptible to takeovers. Alphawave, a semiconductor company, received a bid from US rival Qualcomm at 183p per share, valuing the company at $2.4bn. Oxford Ionics, a quantum computing startup spun out of the University of Oxford, agreed to a $1.1bn takeover by IonQ, a US firm with a market value of $9.7bn. Additionally, Spectris, a precision and testing equipment specialist, saw its shares surge by 69% following a takeover proposal from US private equity company Advent, valuing the company at £3.7bn.

These acquisitions are part of a trend where UK companies are being bought out by US counterparts or shifting their listings to New York for better liquidity and higher valuations. The UK’s technology sector, in particular, faces challenges with a limited number of large listed companies compared to the US market. Recent examples include Wise planning to move its listing to the US, Deliveroo’s takeover by DoorDash, and Darktrace’s acquisition by Thoma Bravo. Alphawave, listed in 2021, is now being acquired by Qualcomm, with Alphawave’s CEO citing opportunities for product expansion and technological enhancement. Qualcomm’s CEO noted the complementarity between the companies’ technologies, aiming to advance connected computing performance in various growth areas like datacentre infrastructure.