Broadcom Ltd. is close to finalizing a deal to buy Brocade Communications Systems Inc. , according to a report, but would look to sell its core networking business. Reuters reported Tuesday that Broadcom, a chip company that merged with Avago Technologies Ltd. last year in a $37 billion deal, could complete the deal by the end of the week. The report, based on anonymous sources, said that Broadcom would look to keep Brocade’s storage and fiber channel businesses while divesting the networking business for which Brocade has been known since the dot-com boom. Included in that divestment would be Ruckus Wireless, the Wi-Fi company that Brocade bought for $1.2 billion earlier this year. The Reuters report follows a Bloomberg News report released Monday that said Brocade was near a deal and named Broadcom as a bidder. Brocade jumped more than 20% after the Bloomberg report and got another boost Tuesday, jumping more than 7% on a tough day for the markets, with the S&P 500 down about 0.8%.
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