Broadcom to expand Indian team

BANGALORE: US-based Broadcom Corporation, a semiconductor company that provides wired and wireless communication chips, today announced that it would expand its engineering presence in India.

With the company's recent acquisition of Athena Semiconductors Inc, which has a development center in Bangalore, Broadcom increased its engineering headcount from 30 last year to 200 at present. The company has invested $10 million in capital expenditure in India.

Scott McGregor, the company's president and CEO, said that the company would continue to invest in R&D facilities in India. “India will definitely play a vital role in supporting the growing demand from key broadband markets across the world.”

Engineers at Broadcom's Bangalore center are working on next-generation of wireless LAN solutions for the low power embedded segment as well as the Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology. McGregor said that the Indian team is an important contributor to Broadcom's IP having filed and issued 150 patents.

Broadcom, which is the biggest fabless semiconductor company outsources its manufacturing, assembly and testing to contract manufacturers across the world. McGregor said that he was excited about India's plans for manufacturing hardware. “We would love to add a new supplier in India for manufacturing our chips,” he said. He added that he was in preliminary discussions with SemIndia to pursue this possibility.

On possible acquisitions of Indian companies, McGregor said that Broadcom bought at least two companies a quarter and was always on the look out for companies working in complementary areas.