Global chipmaker Broadcom has reportedly acquired Israeli startup BroadLight for at least US$200 million, two Israeli newspapers report Tuesday.

Huawei plans to give contracts totalling US$6 billion to US mobile technology companies Qualcomm, Broadcom and Avago.

Wireless chipmaker Broadcom provided a more upbeat view for the fourth quarter, contrasting with fellow semiconductor companies that have recently tempered their expectations.

Broadcom was down more than 4% at last check as Chief Executive Scott McMcGregor said in a statement that the company's outlook "reflects potential industry softness."

Built using 40nm CMOS process technology, the new Broadcom BCM2079x family slashes power consumption by more than 90%, uses 40% fewer components and has a 40% smaller board area, making it the smallest and most power efficient NFC solution on the market.

Broadcom announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SC Square, security software developer based in Israel.

Apple's next-generation iPad contains chips made by Toshiba, Broadcom and Texas Instruments, according to an initial tear-down report by gadget-repair site iFixit. Toshiba supplied the device's storage chips, iFixit said, while Broadcom made the chips used for wireless Internet access. TI chips were used to control the iPad's touchscreen.

"Shares of MIPS are selling off today because ARM announced a subscription license agreement with Broadcom," said Gary Mobley, an analyst with The Benchmark Company, in a report. "Because of Broadcom's heavy use of MIPS cores, Broadcom is MIPS' largest customer. We estimate Broadcom's royalties paid to MIPS represent 35% of MIPS' royalty revenue, or 15% of total revenue."

Broadcom now expects fourth-quarter revenues to reach about US$1.9 billion, the top end of its previous forecast range. "Our increased revenue guidance reflects stronger-than-expected demand for products in our Mobile and Wireless markets versus our initial expectations entering the quarter," said company president and CEO Scott McGregor.

Rambus is giving out another round of subpoenas to all of its friends in the tech industry. Most interesting among the defendants perhaps is Nvidia, who only months ago signed a licensing agreement with Rambus to end an ITC blockade of its products.

Jobs is recruiting lawyers who have fought for and against some of the world's largest companies, including Microsoft, Intel and Broadcom. Broadcom won a patent dispute with Qualcomm last year that ended with Qualcomm paying $891 million in cash over four years.

ZTE, one of China's largest network equipment and phone suppliers, is set to buy US$3 billion worth of semiconductor components from five US technology vendors. It has signed the purchase agreements with Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Freescale Semiconductor, Altera and Broadcom.

"Beceem's talented teams of engineers in India and the US have been focused on enabling a 4G ecosystem of operators and equipment manufacturers to drive the deployment of 4G networks," said Scott Bibaud, Broadcom's Executive VP & GM of the Mobile Platforms Group. "We look forward to adding their innovative technologies to our product portfolio and providing these technologies to our customers."

The next big play in broadband is delivering carrier services to multiple consumer devices in the home over a variety of wired and wireless networks. So chipmakers need to be able to provide a portfolio of Wi-Fi, powerline and coax solutions for STBs, gateways and other devices.

Broadcom expects to close the acquisition of Innovision Research & Technology, which specializes in near-field communication (NFC) technology, in the third quarter of 2010.