US chipmaker Broadcom to buy cloud firm in $61B mega-deal

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US chipmaker Broadcom on Thursday announced that it will acquire all of the outstanding shares of cloud computing and virtualization technology firm VMware in a cash-and-stock deal worth $61 billion.

Broadcom, in addition, said it will assume $8 billion of VMware net debt as well.

If approved, the agreement could become one of the biggest technology acquisitions in history. The transaction is subject to approval by VMware shareholders.

In January, Microsoft announced that it is planning to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion.

Broadcom President and CEO Hock Tan said in a statement the deal would combine his company's semiconductor and infrastructure software businesses with VMware's innovation in enterprise software.

"Collectively, we will deliver even more choice, value and innovation to customers, enabling them to thrive in this increasingly complex multi-cloud era," VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram said.

In 2018, Broadcom had wanted to acquire Qualcomm, another American chipmaker, for $117 billion; however, the deal was blocked by then-president Donald Trump due to national security concerns.