Newport Beach-based chipmaker Mindspeed Technologies Inc. said Wednesday it is buying startup Ample Communications Inc., which makes controllers that speed up communication between computers in a wide-area network.
Mindspeed is set to pay $4.6 million in cash for Fremont-based Ample Communication’s assets and the rights to the technologies it developed.
Privately held Ample was foreclosed on by its biggest creditor, the company said. It didn’t name the creditor.
The deal is set to close by the end of September.
The buy is expected to add about $3 million in sales to Mindspeed during the next couple of quarters, the company said.
Mindspeed had a recent market value of about $200 million.
“With this acquisition Mindspeed will enter a strategic new market segment which we believe will significantly diversify our wide area network portfolio,” said Chief Executive Raouf Halim.
Ample got its start in 2000 and was backed by a handful of venture capital firms, raising as much as $62 million in four rounds of funding, according to industry Web site Lightreading.com.
The company once had as many as 95 workers, split between Fremont and India.
Ample began to see business slow in 2003, despite several design wins, and it ran out of money, according to an August report on Lightreading.com.
