The world’s biggest chip maker, Intel, could announce a $17 billion deal to acquire Altera as early as Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports. Intel is expected to offer about $54 for each Altera share.
Altera had rejected a similar offer made by Intel in April 2015, after several rounds of negotiations. Intel and Altera have yet to confirm the media speculation surrounding a potential merger. The mega-deal could become the largest acquisition in Intel’s 47-year history.
The much awaited deal, if sealed, would add to the recent phase of consolidation that is currently reshaping the semiconductor sector, a $335 billion industry. In the past two years, the semiconductor industry has reported acquisitions valued at roughly $12 billion in total.
Intel specializes in making processors and memory for computers, servers, as well as mobile equipment. Altera on the other hand, focuses on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). Altera’s FPGA chips are priced higher and can be configured by customers to suit the required function, offering more flexibility. In recent years, Altera had been using Intel’s technology in chip designing as part of an agreement with the Santa Clara-based chip maker.
If the deal goes through, it would be the second mega-merger between big chip makers this year. Recently, Avago Technologies announced a $37 billion deal to buy Broadcom. The deal was largest ever acquisition in the semiconductor industry’s history.
