Chipmaker Broadcom to acquire cloud services company VMware in $61 billion deal

• Broadcom offered to pay either $142.50 in cash or 0.2520 shares of its stock for each VMware share

• Deal will help chipmaker diversify away from its core business into enterprise software

Chipmaker Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) on Thursday said it would acquire cloud computing company VMware Inc (NYSE: VMW) for $61 billion to diversify its business into enterprise software.

Broadcom said VMware shareholders could choose to receive either $142.50 in cash or 0.2520 shares of Broadcom common stock for each VMware share.