Thursday, September 23, 2004

Broadcom Buys Cell Chip Maker for $120M

Irvine-based Broadcom (www.broadcom.com) has made another acquisition, this time for UK-based chip maker Alphamosaic. The company said it would pay $120M in stock for the company, which develops mobile imaging and 3D graphics technology for use in cell phones and other devices. Alphamosaic's current first generation multimedia co-processors is being used by handset maker Samsung, and provides MP3 player, video on demand, and megapixel-class camera for Samsung phones. Alphamosaic is also sampling its second generation silicon, which supports 3.5 color LCDs and 8 megapixel image capture. The 57 employees of Alphamosaic will join Broadcom's existing technology group in Cambridge, England. Broadcom also recently acquired Zyray Wireless, a developers of WCDMA broadband co-processors.

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