Broadcom acquires sixth Israeli company in three years

As promised by its CEO when he visited here several weeks earlier, a top global semiconductor company has bought another Israeli start-up – its tenth in a decade

Just days after saying that the company was planning more Israeli acquisitions, international semiconductor company Broadcom announced that it was buying embedded processor developer Broadlight. The deal is worth about $195 million, Broadcom said in a statement.

Broadlight and Broadcom have actually been working together for several years, and with the acquisition Broadcom can fully integrate Broadlight’s fast processors, designed to move data along fiber optic networks. Those networks, which allow much higher transmission speeds, are becoming important to service providers, who are trying to build content delivery systems — particularly TV and movies — over the Internet, in order to compete with cable and satellite operators.

In a statement, Dan Marotta, executive vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s Broadband Communications Group, said that “the need for increased bandwidth for IPTV services, HDTV broadcasting and high speed Internet access are driving momentum for deploying fiber networks. Combining BroadLight’s solutions with the strength of Broadcom’s broadband access portfolio will enable us to offer a complete, end-to-end solution for customers.”

Earlier this month, Broadcom CEO Scott McGregor said that the company was planning new Israeli acquisitions. Broadcom has been one of the biggest international buyers of Israeli tech startups in recent years. Broadlight is the company’s sixth Israeli acquisition since 2009, and its tenth since 2001. “Israel has been very good to Broadcom,” McGregor said at a forum with journalists when he visited here earlier in March. “Israel has a smart and passionate entrepreneurial culture that is well suited to the way we work.”

Key to the deal, company sources told The Times of Israel, was Broadcom vice president Dr. Shlomo Markel, an Israeli who has been with Broadcom since 2001. Markel, who is a 20-year veteran of the Israel Navy, has brought Israeli technology and innovations to the attention of Broadcom executives, the sources said, “acting as a bridge between the company and Israel’s start-up culture.”