Marvell buys Lumentum for 115 billion dollars in all stock deal

Custom chip designer Marvell Technology has agreed to acquire Lumentum, a manufacturer of optical chips and networking equipment. DealBook, TechCrunch, and Pulse 2.0 reported that the transaction values Lumentum at an enterprise value of approximately 115 billion dollars including debt. TechCrunch noted that the equity value of the deal stands at about 80 billion dollars, with Marvell offering 4.5 shares of its common stock for each share of Lumentum. [1][3][7]

The transaction ranks among the largest acquisitions in technology history. TechCrunch reported that the deal is larger than Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard for 68.7 billion dollars in 2022 and Dell acquiring EMC for 67 billion dollars in 2016. TechCrunch also noted that both Marvell and Lumentum share Nvidia as a strategic investor. DealBook and Pulse 2.0 stated that the combined company aims to capitalize on optical networking demand for artificial intelligence data centers. [1][3][7]

Despite the scale of the announcement, public market investors reacted negatively to the transaction terms. MarketWatch Top Stories and Yahoo Finance reported that stock prices for both companies fell on Monday following the news. MarketWatch Top Stories cited investor concerns over the all-stock structure, noting comparisons to the dot-com bubble of 2000. [2][5][11]

Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Marvell was founded in 1995 and recorded annual revenue of 8.2 billion dollars for fiscal 2026. Lumentum was created in 2015 as a spinoff from JDSU. As FTMQ Startups reported earlier, Marvell was in advanced talks to buy the optical products maker after Lumentum reached a market capitalization exceeding 80 billion dollars. [13][14][15]