Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM) will announce within days that it will acquire Israeli embedded chipsets for fiber optics developer Broadlight Ltd. for $200 million. This is not the first time that the sale of Broadlight to Broadcom has been on the cards, but this time, it is a done deal.
The two companies have been in intensive negotiations for several months, after previous rounds of talks that did not result in a deal.
Broadlight, based in Herzliya, has raised $62 million in six financing rounds since it was founded in 2000. Investors include Benchmark Capital, Israel Seed Partners, Star Ventures, Delta Ventures, Azure Capital Partners, Cipio Ventures, and Motorola Ventures, as well as strategic investors, including Broadcom, Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB), and Siemens Venture Capital. It also obtained a loan from Plenus Venture Lending Fund. Estimates are that Broadlight had revenue of $50 million in 2011.
Broadlight will be Broadcom's tenth acquisition in Israel and its Israeli development center with 500 employees is the company's largest outside of the US. In 2011, Broadcom acquired two Israeli companies - SC Square for $42 million and Provigent for $340 million. Last week, Broadcom president and CEO Scott McGregor visited Israel and told a press conference "I expect to continue acquiring more companies here."
Broadlight was chosen as one of "Globes" most promising start ups of 2010.
Broadlight and Broadcom both declined to comment on reports of the imminent acquisition.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 20, 2012
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