Chipmaker Broadcom to buy software group VMware for $61 Billion
It’s official! In what could go down as one of the biggest deals in the history of tech business acquisitions, American chipmaker, Broadcom has concluded plans to acquire VMware in a $61 billion cash-and-stock deal.
The deal falls behind Dell’s $67 billion EMC deal and Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion but this takes nothing away from the sheer size of the acquisition in terms of assets and value.
Broadcom is known for its chip business, designing and manufacturing semiconductors for modems, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth chips across multiple devices.
According to sources, the acquisition is expected to boost Broadcom’s software business. VMware, which was owned by Dell until it was spun off last year, focuses on cloud computing and virtualization technology.
If you’ve ever used a virtual machine at work over the past decade, the chances are it was powered by VMware or its competitor Citrix. Devices from Apple, Google, and more use Broadcom chips, and it’s likely that the devices you’ve used Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on were probably powered by Broadcom chips at some part of the networking chain.
