Chipmaker Marvell Technology said on Monday it would buy smaller rival Cavium in a deal valued at about $6 billion as it seeks to expand its networking equipment business.

Under the deal, Marvell will offer $40 per share in cash and 2.1757 of its shares for each Cavium share. The deal is expected to close in mid-2018.

The deal will allow Marvell to diversify away from its traditional storage devices business following an agreement with Starboard Value last year to accept three new directors nominated by the activist hedge fund to its board.

Marvell CEO Matt Murphy, who took the reins of the chipmaker last year, has embarked on a restructuring of the company, slashing jobs and seeking to add offerings in areas such as data centers and wireless communications.

Based in San Jose, California, Cavium produces network, security, server, and switching processors and systems. Last year it acquired QLogic, a manufacturer of interface devices for storage area networks, for about $1.3 billion.

Marvell has a market capitalization of $10 billion while Cavium, whose shares have risen more than 10 percent since the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that the companies were in advanced talks, has a market capitalization of $5.2 billion.

Mergers and acquisitions activity in the semiconductor sector has been picking up. Earlier this month, chipmaker Qualcomm rejected rival Broadcom $103 billion takeover bid, one of the biggest ever in technology dealmaking, saying the offer undervalued the company and would face regulatory hurdles.

—CNBC contributed to this report.

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Source: Tech CNBC
Chipmaker Marvell Technology in deal to buy smaller rival Cavium