UPDATED 15:53 EST / MARCH 04 2014

QLogic buys Broadcom Ethernet adaptor lines, moves to #2 in market

QLogicQLogic has purchased Broadcom’s 10 Gb, 40Gb and 100Gb Ethernet adapter lines.  This, added to its earlier acquisition of Brocade’s adaptor business, moves it into the #2 slot in the market, behind Intel, while freeing Broadcom to focus on its switches and other solutions that gain little leverage from the adapters, writes Wikibon Principal Research Contributor Stuart Miniman. The sale, he writes, should be seen in the context of IBM’s sale of its x86 product lines to Lenovo,allowing it to focus on its cloud services, and of the increasing impact of a few large cloud vendors on the high speed Ethernet market.

In the last year QLogic sold its InfiniBand switch business to Intel and ended development of its FC and Ethernet switchlines, so that today it no longer competes with Broadcom or Brocade. The acquisition allows QLogic to deliver 40 Gb and 100Gb Ethernet RDMA, important for Microsoft SMB products and new flash solutions such as Dell FluidCache for SAN. It makes QLogic the Intel alternative for players concerned about Intel dominance in the data center.

Like all Wikibon research, this full Professional Alert is available without charge on the Wikibon Web site. IT professionals are invited to register for complimentary membership in the Wikibon community. This allows them to comment on published research and post their own questions, tips, Professional Alerts and longer research on the site and to participate in Wikibon research.

Photo courtesy QLogic

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.

  • 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
  • 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.

Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.