There’s chatter that Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. could be looking to buy Taiwan’s Ralink Technology Corp.
Rumors started swirling Wednesday after Asian technology news website Digitimes.com reported that Broadcom has been in talks with Ralink since November with a “final decision” due in the spring, citing unnamed industry sources.
Ralink is a maker of Wi-Fi chips for a variety of consumer electronics, including routers, laptops, Blu-ray players and other devices. It’s publicly traded in Taiwan.
The Digitimes report said Broadcom could offer roughly $800 million for Ralink, which could be one of the biggest chip buys here in years.
Ralink on Thursday denied that Broadcom was interested in a deal, according to a report in Bloomberg Businessweek.
A spokesperson for Broadcom declined to comment on the matter and said the company “doesn’t comment on speculation.”
Broadcom has focused on acquisitions in recent months. It typically picks up a company or two each quarter.
In November, it agreed to buy Redwood City’s Gigle Networks Inc., a maker of powerline networking chips, for up to $83 million.
Last year it picked up Santa Clara’s Beceem Communications Inc., for $316 million, Israel’s Percello Ltd. for up to $98 million and Britain’s Innovision Research & Technology PLC for $47.5 million.
Broadcom is Orange County’s biggest chipmaker by sales with chips that go into computers, cell phones and consumer gadgets. It had a recent market value of $24 billion.
