Two pioneers, Marvell Technology Group Ltd, a leader in semiconductor infrastructure solutions, and Inphi Corporation (NASDAQ: IPHI), a leader in high-speed data movement, announced a binding agreement between them. According to the agreement, Marvell would acquire Inphi in a cash and stock deal, mutually accepted by both companies’ boards of directors. Marvell plans to restructure following the acquisition. The merged business will be registered in the United States, creating a U.S. semiconductor giant with an enterprise value of around $40 billion.
Inphi has developed a leading high-speed data interconnection platform ideally suited to meet the insatiable demand for increased bandwidth and low power. Inphi’s high-speed electro-optics portfolio, much as Marvell’s copper physical layer portfolio does for enterprise and future in-vehicle networks, offers the networking fabric for cloud data centers and wired and wireless carrier networks.
Integrating Marvell’s storage, networking, processor, and security portfolio with the leading electro-optics interconnect platform of Inphi would place the merged entity in the data infrastructure for end-to-end technology leadership. This highly complementary transaction extends Marvell’s addressable market, increases the client base, and accelerates Marvell’s leadership in hyper-scale cloud data centers and wireless 5G networks.
The machine learning and other data-driven workloads of today have spread beyond the server’s confines. They now cover the entire cloud data center, rendering the software-defined data center’s latest computing model. Hyper-connectivity within the data center drives this pattern and places electro-optical interconnects at the core of the cloud architecture. Moreover, at astounding rates, the need for bandwidth between data centers continues to expand.
With the exponential growth of Internet traffic and the introduction of new ultra-fast 5G wireless networks, the importance of high-speed data interconnection solutions from Inphi would only intensify. The joint venture would be ideally positioned to serve the data-driven globe, targeting cloud datacenter and 5G, fast growth, competitive end markets.
Matt Murphy, President, and CEO of Marvell remarked that their acquisition of Inphi would empower Marvell’s leadership in the cloud and simultaneously outspread their 5G position over the next decade. He added that Inphi’s technologies are at the heart of cloud data center networks. He said that they continue to extend their lead with innovative new products, including 400G data center interconnect optical modules, which influence their unique silicon photonics and DSP technologies. Matt stated that they believe that Inphi’s evolution with cloud customers will lead to additional opportunities for Marvell’s DPU and ASIC products.
Ford Tamer, President, CEO of Inphi, said that Marvell and Inphi envisage the world’s data infrastructure. They have transformed their respective businesses to benefit from the strong secular growth expected in the cloud data center and 5G wireless markets. He anticipated that combining with Marvell significantly increases their scale, accelerates their reach to the next generations of process technology, besides new opportunities in 5G connectivity.
About Marvell
Marvell’s first strike transpired the digital storage industry by offering transfer of information at speeds never thought possible. The company’s storage, processing, networking, security, and connectivity solutions remain at the core of the same breakthrough innovation. It empowers leading intellectual property and broad system-level expertise. Marvell’s solutions transform the enterprise, cloud, automotive, manufacturing, and consumer industries.
For more information, visit https://www.marvell.com
About Inphi
Inphi is a pioneer in the high-speed movement of data. They transfer big data easily, across data centers, and within data centers, around the globe. The experience of Inphi in signal integrity results in efficient data transmission over a range of distances, at high speeds. The necessity for speed has never been greater as data volumes ramp up exponentially due to video streaming, social media, cloud-based services, and wireless networks.
For more information, visit www.inphi.com
