Avago Technologies, the onetime semiconductor arm of HP and Agilent Technologies, is in talks to acquire Broadcom, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The company began operating independently under the Avago name in 2005 after KKR and Silver Lake Partners acquired Agilent’s semiconductor products group.
The Journal reports the deal would be worth about $35 billion, making it the largest semiconductor acquisition ever, according to Dealogic.
Avago traces its history back to the 1960s, when as part of HP it introduced LED dot-matrix displays. More recently, as of 2013, the company said it has shipped more than 350 million embedded SerDes channels in ASICs and ASSPs.
The company has a history of acquisitions, having bought LSI Corp. in 2014 for $6.6 billion. It acquired CyOptics and Javelin Semiconductor in 2013, Nemicon in 2008, and Infineon’s fiber business in 2007.
The Journal reports that Avago had a market value of $34 billion before news of the talks were disclosed.
In other acquisition news, Freescale and NXP announced they had agreed to merge, and Intel expressed interest in acquiring Altera.
Update: Avago Technologies and Broadcom today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Avago will acquire Broadcom in a cash and stock transaction that values the combined company at $77 billion in enterprise value.
