Innovent Systems Inc

In what would be its biggest acquisition so far, Irvine chip maker Broadcom Corp. said Tuesday that it will buy a company that develops the wireless Bluetooth technology for stock worth $457.1 million. Bluetooth, a hot new arena, uses radio frequencies instead of wires or cables to let electronic devices communicate with each other and over the Internet at short ranges.

In its biggest acquisition so far, Irvine chip maker Broadcom Corp. said Tuesday it would buy a company that develops the wireless bluetooth technology for stock worth $457.1 million. Bluetooth, a hot new arena, uses radio frequencies instead of wires or cables to let electronic devices communicate with each other and over the Internet at short ranges. Broadcom, which makes high-speed communications chips, will issue 3 million shares for the 87% of Innovent Systems Inc.

In its biggest acquisition so far, Irvine chip maker Broadcom Corp. said Tuesday it would buy a company that develops the wireless bluetooth technology for stock worth $457.1 million. Bluetooth, a hot new arena, uses radio frequencies instead of wires or cables to let electronic devices communicate with each other and over the Internet at short ranges. Broadcom, which makes high-speed communications chips, will issue 3 million shares for the 87% of Innovent Systems Inc.

In what would be its biggest acquisition so far, Irvine chip maker Broadcom Corp. said Tuesday that it will buy a company that develops the wireless Bluetooth technology for stock worth $457.1 million. Bluetooth, a hot new arena, uses radio frequencies instead of wires or cables to let electronic devices communicate with each other and over the Internet at short ranges.

Broadcom Corp., the industry's fastest-growing semiconductor maker, reported third-quarter earnings Wednesday that far exceeded the forecasts of industry analysts and posted revenue that more than doubled sales from a year ago. Without one-time expenses from the Irvine-based company's aggressive acquisition strategy, Broadcom earned $78.7 million, or 30 cents a share, compared with net income of $24.6 million, or 10 cents a share, for last year's third quarter.

In the white-hot quest for the next big thing in personal electronics, the word on the lips of technology executives these days is "Bluetooth." This soon-to-be-introduced wireless technology uses simple shortwave radio links to allow devices such as laptop computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants such as Palm, cameras and printers to communicate with one another over short distances.