Chipmaker Broadcom To Buy Network Gear Maker Brocade For $5.5 Billion (reuters.com) 33
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Chipmaker Broadcom Ltd said it would buy Brocade Communications Systems Inc for $5.5 billion, pushing deeper into the fast-growing market for network equipment used in data centers. The deal, the latest in a consolidating chip sector, will allow Broadcom to corner a larger share of the data center products market by using Brocade's fiber channel switches that speed up data transfer between servers and storage devices. Singapore-based Broadcom, formerly Avago Technologies, is known for its connectivity chips used in products ranging from mobiles to servers, while California-based Brocade makes networking switches, software and storage products. Broadcom said it planned to sell Brocade's networking business, which makes controllers and access points that help businesses offer high-speed internet to their customers, to avoid competing with its top customers such as Cisco Systems Inc.
Sounds like good news - for Cisco (Score:2)
Who'll buy the pieces Broadcom doesn't want
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missing question mark - sigh.
Slashdot, its way pas time for an edit feature.
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GAH!!!! Another typo - "way PAST time" not "pas" time
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just to drive home the point, eh?
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I also made an "its" instead of "it's" typo. Not my finest hour.
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missing question mark - sigh.
GAH!!!! Another typo - "way PAST time" not "pas" time
I also made an "its" instead of "it's" typo. Not my finest hour.
Don't worry, go join a game company. They're all in the "ship this steaming pile now, we'll patch it later" mode. I kinda like the discipline, you get it right the first time or you look the fool except here it doesn't really matter. Maybe I should send some of my fellow developers to take a /. class before I let them push code to production, maybe they'd get better at QA. Or not, you've been here longer than me...
Cisco's not interested (Score:5, Interesting)
When Cisco closed down their European R&D centres in Edinburgh & Reading, Brocade came in and picked up the redundant developers.
Cisco has lost interest in R&D and has positioned itself as a solutions provider following much the same evolution as IBM.
Buying back what they threw away just doesn't make sense given their lack of interest in selling boxes.
I know all this because I setup Cisco's R&D in Edinburgh when Shiva Networks closed down their acquisition Spider Systems.
My friends working at Brocade are, understandably, very concerned about this acquisition.
They are part of a core group of highly experienced (25+ years) network equipment developers who have never changed jobs other than when they've been acquired or laid off. (Spider->Shiva->Cisco->Brocade)
There's little chance another Brocade will come and save them a 4th time as the network industry has matured to a point where routers and switches are now commodities and if anyone is still developing them they aren't in the UK.
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Very interesting. But a talent pool like that must be useful to someone. Maybe Google or Facebook - or Microsoft?
well, good (Score:2)
At least I won't get broadcom and brocade confused anymore ;^)
Offworld please (Score:3)
new product line coming... (Score:1)
the brocade name will be retired in favor of the new broadcom cockblock.
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Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
This acquisition doesn't make any sense to me. Broadcom is buying all of Brocade, selling off the pieces poised to grow in the wireless and IP networking segments, and keeping the part that serves the shrinking storage-specific networking market? Can somebody explain this to me?
I hope they don't wreck the IP networking and wireless companies. I really like the Brocade VCS fabric stuff and Ruckus wireless kit..
Re: Why? (Score:1)
This is a financial buyout, plain and simple. Broadcom (Avago) will keep the fibre channel business that makes money while cutting fat to improve the bottom line. And I am willing to bet Brocade has a lot of it.
It helps that fibre channel is a funny business. There are standards but interoperability is atrocious. There are only 2 major players on the switch side (brocade and Cisco) and there were only 2 players on the HBA side, one of which was acquired by Broadcom (Emulex) and the other by Brocade (qlogic)
What's w/ Broadcom (Score:2)
A few things that struck me, since I haven't been following them closely: Broadcom is now Singapore based? And what is Avago - a Singapore company that bought Broadcom? Last I looked - albeit a while ago - they were based in S CA.
Referring to the GP, is the wireless segment still growing? It seems to me to have reached saturation, and the wireless space is one more that has seen a lot of consolidation, particularly among chipset vendors
Thats a cool story (Score:2)
Bro...
Bummer (Score:2)
Now I'm bummed that I sold my shares after they acquired Ruckus.