Broadcom Corp. said Tuesday it plans to buy Siliquent Technologies Inc. for $76 million in cash to acquire its 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology, considered the standard for the next wave of faster network gear.
The Irvine-based chipmaker will also assume all unvested employee stock options of Mountain View-based Siliquent, which will entitle the holders to receive up to nearly 200,000 shares of Broadcom Class A common stock, valued at about $7.8 million based on Monday’s closing price.
The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies and is set to close by Sept. 30, the end of Broadcom’s third quarter. Broadcom said it may take a third-quarter charge for research and development expenses.
Siliquent designs devices that boost the performance of networks and storage devices. It has research and development operations in Israel. The company, which was founded in 2001 and has 59 employees, is a “fabless” chipmaker, meaning it doesn’t manufacture its devices.
Broadcom’s once-heady acquisition pace has slowed some in the past year. Its most recent buys include San Diego wireless phone chip designer Zyray Wireless Inc. for $100 million, Andover, Mass.-based Sand Video Inc. for $77 million and San Diego-based Widcomm Inc., a provider of software for Bluetooth wireless products, for $49 million.
* Mike Mason of the Orange County Business Journal contributed to this story.
