Intel Corp. reportedly has made a multibillion-dollar bid for Israel-based Mellanox Technologies Ltd., a leading maker of networking equipment for data centers.

Word of the offer surfaced this morning in reports from the Israeli business journals Calcalist and Globes. The sources who spoke with the publications indicated that Intel’s bid is worth $5.5 billion to $6 billion, with Calcalist claiming the chipmaker plans to pay in a combination of cash and stock. This represents an up to 35 percent premium to Mellanox’s Tuesday closing price.

Mellanox makes networking hardware based on the industry-standard Ethernet and InfiniBand communications protocols. The company offers a wide spectrum of products ranging from switches to cables for connecting servers with storage systems. It also sells chips that are used by other hardware makers such as Dell Technologies Inc. to power their own networking gear.

Mellanox’s technology can be found in enterprise data centers, the facilities of some public cloud providers and supercomputers. The company has a particularly pronounced presence in the latter market, with its networking gear powering more than half of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers as of November.

Acquiring Mellanox would provide a significant boost for Intel’s networking business. The Israeli firm is later today expected to report fourth-quarter revenue of $285 million, up 20 percent from the same period last year. The consensus forecast for earnings per share is even more optimistic, with analysts anticipating nearly a 60 percent jump.

Earlier leaks suggest that Intel isn’t the only prospective buyer eyeing Mellanox. It was reported last month that Microsoft Corp. is also considering to acquire the company, while San Jose, California-based semiconductor maker Xilinx Inc. is said to have made a $5 billion offer.

Today’s reports reaffirmed the existence of multiple bidders besides Intel, but no specific companies were named. Another company that has been floated as a potential buyer is network semiconductor maker Broadcom Inc., which is no stranger to big-ticket acquisitions.

Intel and Mellanox both declined to comment on the reports.

Phot0: Isriya Paireepairit/Flickr