Marvell to acquire Lumentum for $115 billion — one of the largest deals in tech history

Deal terms

Marvell, a developer of custom chips, has signed an agreement to acquire Lumentum, a maker of optical chips and networking equipment. The deal is all-stock: holders of each Lumentum share will receive 4.5 Marvell shares. The stated enterprise value is $115 billion including debt, while the equity value is estimated at roughly $80 billion. This is reported by TechCrunch citing the deal terms, and the $80 billion equity valuation also appears in a WSJ report.

The scale of the deal

According to TechCrunch, this is one of the largest acquisition deals in the history of the tech industry. For comparison, the outlet cites Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in 2022 and Dell's acquisition of EMC for $67 billion in 2016 — both notably smaller than the new deal in stated value.

A shared shareholder — Nvidia

Both companies have a major shareholder in Nvidia. In March, as part of a multi-year agreement to purchase Lumentum's advanced laser components, Nvidia invested $2 billion to support Lumentum's R&D and factory expansion. Later that same month, Marvell announced that Nvidia had also invested $2 billion to strengthen its portfolio of optical networking solutions and chips. Thus, Nvidia turns out to be a major shareholder on both sides of the combination, making its position after the deal closes one of the key details of the agreement.

Strategic goal and timeline

Marvell says that with Lumentum it will become a leader in AI connectivity with products ranging from chips to data centers. The companies expect the deal to close in the first half of calendar year 2028 — subject to approval by the shareholders of both companies and by regulators. Until then, the combination remains a plan rather than an accomplished fact.