DESCRIPTION OF BROADCOM INC. COMMON STOCK
The following description of Broadcom Inc.’s common stock is a summary. This summary does not purport to be complete and is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by, the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (“DGCL”), as well as our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as may be amended from time to time (“Certificate of Incorporation”) and amended and restated bylaws, as may be amended from time to time (“Bylaws”), both of which have been publicly filed with the SEC. We encourage you to read that law and those documents carefully. “Broadcom,” “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us” refer to Broadcom Inc. excluding our subsidiaries, unless expressly stated or the context otherwise requires.
Common Stock
General
The certificate of incorporation authorizes 29,000,000,000 shares of common stock, $0.001 par value per share.
Voting Rights
Each holder of our common stock is entitled to one vote for each share on all matters submitted to a vote of the stockholders, including the election of directors. The holders of our common stock do not have cumulative voting rights in the election of directors. Accordingly, in an uncontested election, holders of a majority of the voting shares are able to elect all of the directors.
Dividends
Subject to preferences that may be applicable to any then outstanding preferred stock, holders of our common stock are entitled to receive dividends, if any, as may be declared from time to time by our board of directors out of legally available funds. Dividends may be paid in cash, in property or in shares of common stock. Declaration and payment of any dividend are subject to the discretion of our board of directors. The time and amount of dividends is dependent upon our financial condition, operations, cash requirements and availability, debt repayment obligations, capital expenditure needs, restrictions in our debt instruments, industry trends, the provisions of the DGCL affecting the payment of distributions to stockholders and any other factors our board of directors may consider relevant.
Liquidation
In the event of our liquidation, dissolution or winding up, holders of our common stock are entitled to share ratably in the net assets legally available for distribution to stockholders after the payment of all debts and other liabilities and the satisfaction of any liquidation preference granted to the holders of any then outstanding shares of preferred stock.
Rights and Preferences
Holders of our common stock have no preemptive, conversion, subscription or other rights, and there are no redemption or sinking fund provisions applicable to our common stock. The rights, preferences and privileges of the holders of our common stock are subject to and may be adversely affected by the rights of the holders of shares of any series of preferred stock that we may designate in the future.
Fully Paid and Non-Assessable
All outstanding shares of our common stock are fully paid and non-assessable.
Annual Stockholder Meetings
Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws provide that annual stockholder meetings will be held at a date, place (if any) and time, as exclusively selected by our board of directors. To the extent permitted under applicable law, we may but are not obligated to conduct meetings by remote communications, including by webcast.
Anti-Takeover Effects of Provisions
Some provisions of the DGCL and our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws could make the following transactions difficult: acquisition of our Company by means of a tender offer, proxy contest or otherwise; or removal of our incumbent officers and directors. It is possible that these provisions could make it more difficult to accomplish or could deter transactions that stockholders may otherwise consider to be in their best interest or in our best interests, including transactions that might result in a premium over the market price for shares of our common stock.
These provisions, summarized below, are expected to discourage coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids. These provisions are also designed to encourage persons seeking to acquire control of our Company to first negotiate with our board of directors. We believe that the benefits of protection to our potential ability to negotiate with the proponent of an unfriendly or unsolicited proposal to acquire or restructure our Company outweigh the disadvantages of discouraging these proposals because negotiation of these proposals could result in an improvement of their terms.
Delaware Anti-Takeover Statute
Section 203 of the DGCL prohibits persons deemed “interested stockholders” from engaging in a “business combination” with a publicly-held Delaware corporation for three years following the date these persons become interested stockholders unless the business combination is, or the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder was, approved in a prescribed manner or another prescribed exception applies. Generally, an “interested stockholder” is a person who, together with affiliates and associates, owns, or within three years prior to the determination of interested stockholder status did own, 15% or more of a corporation’s voting stock and a “business combination” includes a merger, asset or stock sale, or other transaction resulting in a financial benefit to the interested stockholder. The existence of this provision may have an anti-takeover effect with respect to transactions not approved in advance by the board of directors, such as discouraging takeover attempts that might result in a premium over the market price of our common stock.
Undesignated Preferred Stock
The ability to authorize undesignated preferred stock will make it possible for our board of directors to issue preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could impede the success of any attempt to change control of our Company. These and other provisions may have the effect of deterring hostile takeovers or delaying changes in control or management of our Company.
Special Stockholder Meetings
Our Bylaws provide that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by our board of directors or by two or more common stockholders holding at least 10% of the total number of our issued and outstanding shares.
Requirements for Advance Notification of Stockholder Nominations and Proposals
Our Bylaws establish advance notice procedures with respect to stockholder proposals and the nomination of candidates for election as directors, other than nominations made by or at the direction of the board of directors or a committee of the board of directors.
Proxy Access Nominations
Our Bylaws provide that we must include in our proxy statement for an annual meeting of stockholders the name, together with certain other required information, of any person nominated for the election of directors in compliance with specified provisions in our Bylaws by a single stockholder that satisfies (or by a group of no more than 20 stockholders that satisfy) various notice and other requirements specified in our Bylaws. Among other requirements, such stockholder or group of stockholders would need to provide evidence verifying that the stockholder or group owns, and has owned continuously for the preceding three years, at least 3% of the outstanding shares of our common stock. Our Bylaw provision establishes a maximum number of nominees submitted by stockholders that we would be required to include in our proxy statement for an annual meeting.
No Stockholder Action by Written Consent
Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws do not provide for the right of stockholders to act by written consent without a meeting.
Composition of the Board of Directors; Election and Removal of Directors; Filling Vacancies
Our board of directors may consist of not less than one nor more than 13 directors. In any uncontested elections of directors, a director nominee for the board of directors will be elected by the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast with respect to such director by the shares represented and entitled to vote at a meeting of the stockholders for the election of directors at which a quorum is present, voting together as a single class. An incumbent director who is nominated for an uncontested election and fails to receive a majority of the votes present and voting for such director’s reelection would be required to tender his or her resignation to the board of directors. The Nominating, Environmental, Social and Governance Committee of the board of directors (or any future committee the equivalent thereof) will make a recommendation to the board of directors on whether to accept or reject the resignation, or whether other action should be taken. The board of directors will act on the recommendation of such committee and will publicly disclose its decision within 90 days from the date of the certification of the election results. In a contested election, a plurality voting standard will apply to director elections. Our directors are elected until the expiration of the term for which they are elected and until their respective successors are duly elected and qualified.
Our directors may be removed only by the affirmative vote of at least a majority of the holders of our then outstanding common stock. Furthermore, any vacancy on the board of directors, however occurring, including a vacancy resulting from an increase in the size of the board, may be filled only by a majority vote of the board of directors then in office, even if less than a quorum, or by the sole remaining director. This system of electing and removing directors and filling vacancies may tend to discourage a third party from making a tender offer or otherwise attempting to obtain control of our Company, because it generally makes it more difficult for stockholders to replace a majority of the directors.
Choice of Forum
Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for: any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the DGCL or our Certificate of Incorporation or Bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Although our Certificate of Incorporation contains the choice of forum provision described above, it is possible that a court could find that such a provision is inapplicable for a particular claim or action or that such provision is unenforceable.
Amendment of the Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws
The amendment of any of the provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation would require approval by a stockholder vote by the holders of at least a majority of the voting power of the then outstanding voting stock. Our Bylaws may be amended by the board of directors or by the holders of at least a majority of the voting power of the then outstanding voting stock.
The provisions of the DGCL, our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws could have the effect of discouraging others from attempting hostile takeovers and, as a consequence, they may also inhibit temporary fluctuations in the market price of our common stock that often result from actual or rumored hostile takeover attempts. These provisions may also have the effect of preventing changes in our management. It is possible that these provisions could make it more difficult to accomplish transactions that stockholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interests.
Limitations of Liability and Indemnification Matters
Our Certificate of Incorporation contains provisions that limit the liability of our directors and officers for monetary damages to the fullest extent permitted by the DGCL. Consequently, our directors and officers are not personally liable to the Company or its stockholders for monetary damages for any breach of fiduciary duties, except liability for:
•any breach of the director’s or officer’s duty of loyalty to us or our stockholders;
•any act or omission not in good faith or that involves intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law;
•unlawful payments of dividends or unlawful stock repurchases or redemptions as provided in Section 174 of the DGCL, in the case of a director;
•any transaction from which the director or officer derived an improper personal benefit; or
•in any action by or in the right of us, in the case of an officer.
Each of our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws provide that we are required to indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by the DGCL. Our Bylaws also obligate us to advance expenses incurred by a director or officer in advance of the final disposition of any action or proceeding, and permit us to secure insurance on behalf of any officer, director, employee or other agent for any liability arising out of his or her actions in that capacity regardless of whether we would otherwise be permitted to indemnify him or her under the DGCL. We have entered into agreements to indemnify the directors, executive officers and other employees as determined by our board of directors. With specified exceptions, these agreements provide for indemnification for related expenses including, among other things, attorneys’ fees, judgments, fines and settlement amounts incurred by any of these individuals in any action or proceeding to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. We believe that these bylaw provisions and indemnification agreements are necessary to attract and retain qualified persons as directors and officers. We also maintain directors’ and officers’ liability insurance.
The limitation of liability and indemnification provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against our directors and officers for breach of their fiduciary duty. They may also reduce the likelihood of derivative litigation against our directors and officers, even though an action, if successful, might benefit us and our stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent that we pay the costs of settlement and damage.
Uncertificated Shares
Holders of shares of our common stock do not have the right to require Broadcom to issue certificates for their shares. We only issue uncertificated shares of our common stock.
Stock Exchange Listing
Shares of our common stock are listed on Nasdaq under the symbol “AVGO.”
No Sinking Fund
The shares of our common stock do not have sinking fund provisions.
Transfer Agent and Registrar
The transfer agent and registrar for our common stock is Computershare Trust Company, N.A. The transfer agent and registrar’s address is 250 Royall Street, Canton, Massachusetts 02021.
