Broadcom, a Nasdaq-listed communications equipment supplier that has made more than 40 acquisitions, has agreed to buy Beceem Communications, a US-based provider of mobile wireless internet connection semiconductors part-owned by Intel Capital.
Broadcom will pay $316m in cash, minus unvested employee options that will receive Broadcom stock.
In May, Beceem filed with the US regulator for its expected $100m flotation, having become profitable last last year. Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of semiconductor company Intel, owned 20% of Beceem with venture capital firms Walden International, Global Catalyst Partners and Khosla Ventures a further 37.2%, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Beceem said its other investors were Japan-based computer company NEC Corporation, Japanese bank Mitsui’s Technology Investment Group and Korean peer Samsung’s corporate venturing unit, as well as VCs Sequoia Capital and KTB Ventures, which is partnered by a host of Asian government and financial investors.
However, Beceem closed its series D round at more than $40m in February 2007 in a round led by Canada-based pension fund Teachers’ Private Capital as well as Japanes phone operator NTT’s corporate venturing unit Docomo. Samsung led its $20m series C round 15 months earlier and its B round raised $9.6m. News provider Fortune said Beceem had raised $110m in venture funding since its launch.
Beceem provides a fourth generation of wireless broadband connections across both main standards, Long Term Evolution of Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (LTE) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) that offers download speeds of up to 220MB per second.
According to the Global Semiconductor Alliance, 132 operators in 56 countries are investing in and are expected to deploy LTE, while WiMax has already been deployed in over 550 networks in 148 countries, led by Korea.
Separately, Intel Capital has agreed to invest $20m in Korea-based WiBro Infra Company, a joint venture between it, the country’s main phone company and electronics group, KT and Samsung respectively, and private equity firm KBIC.
KT offers a so-called 3W service – covering the WiMax, W-CDMA and Wi-Fi standards, and already offers the 4G services in capital Seoul plus Inchon and Suwon and by March is expected to be the first carrier in the world to offer nationwide a mobile WiMax service.
Suk-chae Lee, chief executive of KT, said: “We will cooperate with Intel in every way to promote the wireless internet.
“Just like a seamless transportation network requiring expressways, railroads and aviation, KT will develop a 3W network with WiBro, Wi-Fi, and W-CDMA technologies complementing each other to make Korea the world’s best mobile wonderland.”