A New Breed Drives the Deal-Making Frenzy at Computer Chip Firms<br />SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Matthew Murphy, a first-time chief executive, was barely a year into a turnaround effort at Marvell Semiconductor<br />when he sold its board on a bold move: a $6 billion offer to purchase Cavium, another midsize maker of computer chips.<br />While acquisitions in the industry are not new, the slowing sales of many kinds of chips<br />and the stiff costs to develop new ones have led these executives to pursue bigger deals and curtail spending on technology projects that might take years to pay off.<br />“They’re still fighting the past battles of the industry.”<br />Another chief executive who has wrung profits from purchased companies is Steve Sanghi, who leads Microchip Technology in Chandler, Ariz.<br />At Micrel, another Silicon Valley company that Microchip purchased, for $839 million<br />in 2015, the margin improved to more than 30 percent from 6 percent, he said.
