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Infineon to buy Ardent for $42 million

Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX) said Monday it will buy Ardent Technologies, a supplier of integrated circuits for local area network switching systems, for $42 million. The deal is part of its goal to enter the enterprise networking sector.

Shares in Infineon, a German-based company which makes semiconductors for the communications automotive and industrial markets, closed down 1.38 to 47.5 Friday.

Infineon will buy 100 percent of privately held Ardent in the share-based deal, worth $42 million.

Ardent has expertise in LAN switching technology and Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet switching devices targeted at small-to-medium businesses. The company is also developing products that offer higher bandwidth.

The acquisition will enable Infineon to penetrate the LAN switching market; research firm Dataquest says switches are the fastest growing segment of the LAN market, with worldwide port shipment of LAN switches growing at a solid rate of 24 percent to over 181 million ports in 2003.