Broadcom’s Software Makeover Doesn’t Fully Mask Chip Swings

Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan isn’t someone who finds blowing money appetizing. But that $40,000 dinner seems to have gone down well. 

That was the reported cost for Tan to sit at the table of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a dinner at last month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco. It is a notable sum for an executive known for running one of the most tightfisted chip companies in the business. Broadcom spends just 4% of its annual revenue on sales and marketing—compared with 11% on average by companies on the PHLX Semiconductor Index.