Shares of Irvine chipmaker Microsemi Corp. jumped Wednesday after the company said it agreed to buy the assets of a microwave chipmaker for $7.8 million.
The stock was up more than 5% on a market value of nearly $2 billion.
Microsemi said it’s set to pay cash for the assets of Westford, Mass.-based Microwave Device Technology Corp., which is also called MDT.
The deal, set to close at year’s end, is expected to add to earnings right away, the company said.
MDT’s customers include defense contractors and cell phone makers, among others. The company had sales of about $7 million for the past 12 months.
The buy is part of Microsemi’s push into selling microwave chips go into sensors for alarms and motion and speed detectors.
Microsemi’s latest buy before MDT was about a year ago.
The company wrapped up its $245 million acquisition of publicly-traded Israeli chipmaker PowerDsine Ltd. in January.
