Report: Intel Buying Altera?

Intel is reportedly in talks for a $10 billion-plus takeover of basestation chipmaker Altera.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday afternoon that Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) is in talks to buy Altera Corp. (Nasdaq: ALTR). Terms and timing on the deal are not known. It would be a massive acquisition for Intel, as Altera currently has a market cap of $10.4 billion.

Altera makes programmable chips -- known as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) -- that are widely used in cellular basestations. Intel has been trying to get a larger footprint in this market through acquisition. It bought Mindspeed Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: MSPD) in December 2013 for small cell wireless basestation technology. (See Intel Confirms Mindspeed Wireless Buyout and 2014: Intel's Year of Living Wirelessly?)

Want to know more about wireless chip challenges and strategies? These will be just some of the many topics covered at Light Reading's second Big Telecom Event on June 9-10 in Chicago. Get yourself registered today or get left behind!

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Silicon-related M&A is picking up, with M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc. acquiring several vendors recently. The Intel acquisition could be the latest entry in an already busy acquisitions market. (See Chip M&A: What's Next for MACOM?)

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading