Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. is paying $316 million to buy a Santa Clara maker of chips for the next generation of mobile phones.
Broadcom is buying Beceem Communications Inc. as part of its bid to grow sales of chips to mobile phone makers.
The deal is set to close by the end of the first quarter and is expected to have a neutral effect on Broadcom’s 2011 profits.
Beceem makes chips for fourth-generation mobile phones, an emerging technology that promises to boost download speeds and allow people to do more with their smartphones.
Wireless service providers Sprint Nextel Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. are in the early stages of rolling out 4G networks.
Beceem makes baseband chips, or the processors that do essential functions in a phone. It also makes radio frequency chips that allow for improved reception.
Broadcom makes chips for networking, computers, consumers electronics and mobile phones. The company’s mobile phone chips business is small but growing.
Customers include Nokia Corp., Samsung Group and Apple Inc.
Beceem got its start in 2003. The company is backed by a number of key investors, including the venture capital arms of Samsung, Intel Corp. and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc.
The acquisition is the biggest for Broadcom this year.
In June, Broadcom paid $47.5 million for Britian’s Innovision Research & Technology PLC, which makes chips that allow for what is known as near field communication, or the wireless exchange of data within a matter of inches.
Innovision’s chips let people pay for things using their cells phones, among other uses.
