By Orr Hirschauge
TEL AVIV-- Amazon.com Inc. is in advanced talks to buy secretive
Israeli chip designer Annapurna Labs Ltd. for $350 million,
according to two people familiar with the matter.
The deal is expected to be completed soon, the people said, and
the price could go as high as $375 million, depending on certain
conditions.
Calcalist, an Israeli financial newspaper, published a report
Thursday on the talks between the companies.
Based in Yoqneam, in Israel's north, Annapurna Labs was founded
in 2011 by Avigdor Willenz, founder of the chip-design company
Galileo Technologies Ltd. Marvel Technology Group Ltd. bought
Galileo for $2.7 billion in 2000.
Originally funded by the founder and people related to him,
Annapurna hasn't yet revealed the technology it is developing. The
people familiar with the matter said Annapurna develops midrange
networking chips for data centers, offering improvements over
existing products in terms of information-transmission rates and
power consumption.
Seattle-based Amazon, a global market leader in cloud services
and online retailing, likely would use Annapurna's designs in its
extensive data centers to lower operation costs.
Amazon declined to comment. Annapurna wasn't immediately
available for comment.
Write to Orr Hirschauge at Orr.Hirschauge@wsj.com
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