Broadcom buys Element 14Alex Mayhew-SmithElement 14 has been sold to US firm Broadcom for around £400m, a year and nine months after the firm emerged from the ashes of UK computer firm Acorn in a £1.5m management buy-out.
Element 14, a fabless semiconductor firm based in Cambridge, has 68 employees at its headquarters and in design centres in Bristol and Mechelem, Belgium.
By integrating our DSL transceiver technology with Broadcom's key strengths in voice processing, network processing, home networking wireless and video, we will be uniquely positioned to build compelling integrated solutions for both ends of the wire, said Stan Boland, chief executive officer of Element 14.
The firm has yet to produce its first chip but recently said it would do so by the end of the year. Boland promised it would be the most powerful DSP core in the industry.
Boland, part of the management buy-out team, will become head of a new Broadcom DSL business unit, comprising of Broadcom's VDSL and ADSL businesses and related telecoms local loop transmission activities.
Boland described Element 14's design team as the hottest processor tool and application team on the planet, with engineers from Alcatel, STMicroelectronics and ARM.
Broadcom's CEO Dr Henry Nicholas claimed that with the integration of Element 14's product line, the firm would be able to deliver the most comprehensive portfolio for copper twisted broadband delivery. Element 14's world class DSP technology can be leveraged across all our business units, said Nicholas.
Element 14 had investment from backers including Atlas Venture, Amadeus Capital Partners and TTP Venture Fund. The return on their investment in Element 14 is estimated at 25 times. Staff at Element 14 own 40 per cent of the firm, now worth about $240m.