Intel Corp said on June 27 it would sell its money-losing communications processor business to Marvell Technology Group Ltd for $600 million, returning the world's largest chipmaker's focus to microprocessors and related computer chips.
Marvell said the move would help it gain footing in the cellphone market, but its shares plunged 14 percent to its lowest level in more than six months on concerns whether the company could turn the business around.
The unit, part of Intel's communications chips business, makes and sells processors for advanced cellphones and personal digital assistants. It had for years struggled to turn a profit and is the last of the dot-com era businesses Intel had experimented with to drive new growth. Intel also ran a Web hosting service in the late 1990s.