Irvine’s Solarflare Communications Inc., one of the county’s best-funded chip startups, is reported to be in talks to be bought or sell parts of its business to Santa Clara chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
Marvell and Solarflare aren’t commenting on the speculation, according to a report on technology new site SocalTech.com.
Solarflare makes networking chips and circuit boards that help bridge old networks with new ones.
The company has more than $200 million in venture funding since starting in 2001.
Investors include Westport, Conn.-based Oak Investment Partners, Britain’s Acacia Capital Partners, Santa Monica-based Anthem Venture Partners, Corona del Mar’s Miramar Venture Partners and Intel Corp.’s venture arm, among others.
Solarflare has yearly sales of about $10 million and expects to be profitable this year, according to Chief Executive Russell Stern.
Marvell makes chips for data storage and networking. Irvine-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. is a major customer.
The company had a recent market value of $10 billion.
