Report: Broadcom Seeks To Offload Its RF Wireless Chip Business

Broadcom reportedly is teaming with Credit Suisse to sell off its radio-frequency unit, one of its wireless chip businesses that makes filters used in cellphones to clarify signals, especially for 5G use cases.

Broadcom is reportedly shopping around one of its wireless chip units as the semiconductor giant turns its attention to software.

Broadcom is working with investment bank and financial services firm Credit Suisse Group AG to find a buyer for its radio-frequency (RF) unit, one of its wireless chip businesses that makes filters used in cellphones to clarify signals, especially for 5G use cases, according to a report published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal that cited people familiar with the matter.

The report comes one week after Broadcom said it would reclassify its wireless units as outside its core semiconductor business during its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call with investors.

[Related: Symantec Enterprise Sales Head Exits In Wake Of Broadcom Deal]

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan during the call referred to Broadcom's wireless businesses as “stand-alone franchises” that don’t go with the rest of the company's business segments.

Broadcom could not be reached for comment prior to press time.

The business unit posted $2.2 billion out of Broadcom’s $22.6 billion in revenue for the 2019 fiscal year. In a sale, the segment could fetch upward of $10 billion, but the process of finding a buyer is still in its early days, the report said.

Broadcom has spent the past two years angling itself toward software. The company in November closed on its deal to purchase Symantec's enterprise business in a massive $10.7 billion deal for its business-focused security products. San Jose, Calif.-based Broadcom in 2018 bought CA Technologies for $18.9 billion.

Tan on the company's earnings call last week also spoke about Cisco's game-changing Silicon One announcement. Tan said that Cisco's entry into the market and introduction of the Silicon One high-performance networking chip validated his company's laserlike focus on disaggregation.

“The fact that Cisco is joining it we now feel validates the model, the trend we have been pushing,” Tan told investors last Thursday. “And it’s great to see that we’re right yet again. So we’ll welcome the competition.”