Five years ago this week… President Trump blocked Broadcom’s $117 billion attempted takeover of Qualcomm – in what would have been the world’s most expensive technology merger at the time – on the grounds of national security. Specifically, upon review of recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, Trump feared that the void created by the merger would allow Chinese firms to flourish in the development of 5G technologies and surpass the US. This was not unexpected, as the US was determined to stall China’s lead on 5G. This marked the first time a US President had cited threats to national security as reason for pre-emptively blocking M&A activity, while also threatening to trigger copycat situations the…