Broadcom Corp. today announced that it has acquired Sunext Design, Inc. and has licensed certain optical disk reader and writer technology.

Sunext Technology is a privately-held fabless semiconductor company that specializes in optical storage technologies.

Sunext single-chip front-end technology is a strong complement to Broadcom's system-on-a-chip (SoC) back-end Blu-ray Disc platform, and key to an integration roadmap that will drive the cost of these devices down.

"To further the widespread adoption of high definition Blu-ray Disc media players, it is imperative to have cost-effective, complete silicon solutions, and the acquisition by Broadcom of Sunext Design and license of its associated technology puts Broadcom firmly ahead in the race to offer a complete Blu-ray solution," said

In connection with the transaction, which closed on Friday, February 29th, 2008, Broadcom will pay up to $48 million in cash in exchange for all of the outstanding shares of Sunext Design's capital stock and for the license rights granted by Sunext Technology.