Broadcom shares soar on report of Avago Technologies deal
The Broadcom logo is stamped on a circuit board. Shares of the Irvine company jumped Wednesday on a report that it was in talks to be acquired by Avago Technologies.
Shares of Broadcom Corp. jumped 21.5% on Wednesday on reports that the Irvine semiconductor developer is in advanced talks to be acquired by Avago Technologies.
Broadcom shares gained $10.09 to close at $57.15.
In the last year, Broadcom stock has risen more than 80%, powered by strong demand for its chips, which are key components in common consumer products and functions including smartphones, wireless computer networks, movie and music streaming and cloud computing.
Avago, based in Singapore and San Jose, said it would hold a news conference Thursday but did not disclose the nature of it. Avago designs and develops hardware for both digital and analog components and hardware for cellphones, data networking, storage and telecommunications equipment.
Avago shares jumped $10.19, or 7.8% on Wednesday, to $141.49.
Founded in Santa Monica by a UCLA engineering professor, Henry Samueli, and a top student, Henry T. Nicholas III, Broadcom is one of the world’s largest so-called fabless semiconductor companies, designing and developing products in laboratories and design centers for manufacture by independent chip makers around the world. The company has more than 10,000 employees worldwide, most of them engineers.
The company reported net income of $652 million on $8.4 billion in revenue last year. Among its customers are Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., DirecTV, Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
News of talks was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Both companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Twitter: @deanstarkman
