Broadcom Plans IPO to Raise $54 Million

Broadcom Corp., which makes semiconductors for high-speed data and video transmission, plans an initial public offering of common stock. The Irvine company estimated that the stock sale would raise $54 million, according to documents filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company will disclose the number of shares to be sold and their price in a subsequent filing. The primary selling point of Broadcom semiconductors, the company says, is that they permit high-speed transmissions of digital data using existing communications lines, such as coaxial cables installed by cable television operators and copper wires used by telephone companies. Many of these systems were not originally intended for digital data. Henry T. Nicholas III and Henry Samueli founded the company in 1991. Samueli was a founder of PairGain Technologies Inc., and Nicholas worked at the Tustin company, which makes communications systems that let network service providers send high-speed data, video and voice services more efficiently over copper telephone lines. Broadcom recorded a net loss of $1.17 million in 1997, reversing net income of $3.01 million generated during 1996. Revenue rose to $36.9 million from $21.4 million.