LSI to buy Agere in $4b deal

LSI Logic is set to acquire Agere Systems in an all-stock deal worth nearly $4 billion. The merger will create a "storage, networking and consumer powerhouse" that will focus on chips, systems and software for equipment vendors. While LSI was better known in the storage networking and consumer electronics sector, Agere specialized in chips for fixed and wireless networking and storage, with a focus on enabling broadband access.

The deal with LSI sees Agere investors pocketing 2.16 shares of LSI stock for each share owned of Agere, which based on LSI's closing price makes for a 28 percent higher closing price or a total of about $4 billion. The deal is just the latest on LSI's holiday shopping spree: a few weeks ago the company bought storage virtualization start-up StoreAge Networking.

For more on LSI's acquisition of Agere:
- see this article from Light Reading