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October 13, 2010

With Eye on 4G, Broadcom Acquires Beceem for $316 Million

By Tammy Wolf
TMCnet Copy Editor

To add to its repertoire of 3G cellular solutions and with its eye on a position in 4G, semiconductor company Broadcom has acquired Beceem Communications (News - Alert), a leader in long-term evolution and WiMax wireless technology, for $316 million.

This acquisition, which has been approved by the boards of directors of both firms and is expected to close by the end of March 2011, would give Broadcom access to Beceem’s revolutionary 4G multimode LTE (News - Alert)-WiMax network expertise, which supports peak download speeds up to 200 Mbps. This agreement will now pit Broadcom against Qualcomm, which also offers rapidly emerging LTE and WiMax solutions.

Beceem gained recognition in early 2008 when it was selected by Clearwire (News - Alert) to be the primary silicon provider for its WiMax launch. Then, another agreement followed with Sprint, which has since taken over control of Clearwire. It has also been conducting trails in Arizona to test compatibility issues with LTE and WiMax.

According to Beceem CEO Surendra Babu Mandava, this acquisition “will be one of the most extensive and formidable in the industry,” as it will allow carriers and providers to upgrade their 2G and 3G networks by employing Broadcom’s (News - Alert) expertise and make the move to 4G seamlessly via Beceem’s product portfolio.

Company officials also said Beceem’s 4G solutions will merge well with Broadcom’s products, including wireless LAN, Bluetooth, GPS, Ethernet switching and other related IP solutions.  

"The combination of Beceem and Broadcom creates a leader in providing multimode wireless connectivity solutions to service providers and equipment manufacturers around the world," said Broadcom's Scott Bibaud, executive vice president and general manager of the firm’s mobile platforms group, in a statement. "Beceem's talented teams of engineers in India and the U.S. have been focused on enabling a 4G ecosystem of operators and equipment manufacturers to drive the deployment of 4G networks."

Broadcom recently unveiled a new portfolio of silicon solutions that enable the rapid deployment of energy efficient networks, as reported by TMCnet.


Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet copy editor. Previously she was assistant to the editor at The Darien Times, a weekly newspaper in Darien, Conn., where she edited submissions, did page layout and design and helped manage the newspaper�s website. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Tammy Wolf



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