U.S. chipmaker Intel Corp. has reportedly bid $5.5 billion to $6 billion in cash and stock to buy Israel's Mellanox Technologies.
A $6 billion offer would represent a 35% premium to the last closing price of Mellanox on Nasdaq, the Calcalist financial news website said.
Based in Yokneam, Israel, Mellanox makes chips and other hardware for data center servers that power cloud computing. Headed by founder and CEO Eyal Waldman, the company currently employs over 3,000 people. Mellanox has five research and development centers in Israel, as well as three in Nablus, Rawabi and the Gaza Strip. Among its customers are NASA, Facebook and Google.
Officials at Intel and Mellanox declined to comment.
In October, CNBC reported that Mellanox has hired a financial adviser to explore a sale after receiving takeover interest from at least two companies.
Some of the company's investors had voiced complaints to senior management over concerns Mellanox had missed out on a number of opportunities to sell when the technology firm was valued significantly higher.
Intel, however, is not alone in its talks with Mellanox. Multinational tech companies Qualcomm and IBM are also reportedly interested in acquiring the high-tech firm. It is unclear where Intel's bid stands in relation to other offers.
On Monday, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said Intel plans to invest $11 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in southern Israel.
Intel purchased Israeli driver-assistance technology developer Mobileye for $15 billion in 2018.
