Tech M&A: BBG: Marvell nears deal to acquire Inphi for $10bn

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. is nearing a deal to acquire Inphi Corp. for about $10 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter, adding to an already record year for chip industry deals.

Marvell will pay 60% of the acquisition in stock, with the rest in cash, the person said. An announcement could come as soon as Thursday, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

Dow Jones reported the acquisition earlier Wednesday.

A representative for Inphi declined to comment, while a representative for Marvell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.Inphi is a maker of chips that act as the interface in gear that helps speed the flow of big chunks of information between computers and networks.

Data center silicon is becoming increasing important as cloud providers are finding themselves swamped in data and look at even the most basic components to try to make their giant warehouses full of expensive equipment more efficient.

The purchase of Inphi adds to an already bumper year of announced transactions including Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s $35 billion takeover of Xilinx Inc., Nividia Corp.’s $40-billion purchase of Arm Ltd. and Analog Devices Inc. agreement to acquire Maxim Integrated Products Inc. for $20.9 billion.

Inphi counts Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. among its biggest customers, according to Bloomberg Supply Chain Analysis.Inphi stock has rallied 50% this year, even as it’s tried to overcome the loss of another large user of its chips, China’s Huawei Technologies Co. which has been cut off from U.S. suppliers by regulatory action.

The company is on course to register an increase in revenue of almost 90% this year according to analysts’ estimates.