Key takeaways

  • Marvell agreed on November 2 to buy Lumentum for an implied enterprise value of $115 billion in an all-stock deal.
  • Lumentum holders get 4.5 Marvell shares each, about $1,132 a share and a 23.9% premium to October 28.
  • Closing is expected in the first half of 2028, pending shareholder and regulatory approval.

Marvell will buy Lumentum for about $115 billion in an all-stock deal, the two companies said on November 2 in a joint announcement filed with the SEC. The Marvell Lumentum deal ties a maker of data-center chips to a maker of the lasers and optical parts that carry data between AI servers.

Lumentum shareholders get a fixed 4.5 Marvell shares for each Lumentum share. That implies about $1,132 per Lumentum share, a premium of about 23.9% to its closing price on October 28. Marvell shareholders would own about 67% of the combined company and Lumentum holders about 33%.

Why Marvell wants optical parts

Marvell sells electrical and optical interconnect, switching and custom silicon. Lumentum makes lasers, optical transceivers and optical circuit switches, which move data as light instead of electricity. Inside AI clusters, the links between chips are getting as important as the chips themselves, and more of them are moving to optics.

Marvell puts the market it can address after the deal at $550 billion. It also says it sees more than $1 billion a year in cost savings, and expects the deal to add to its non-GAAP earnings per share in the first year after closing. Those are the company's own projections.

Lumentum also brings its own manufacturing in indium phosphide, a compound semiconductor used for high-speed lasers.

Who runs it and when it closes

Matt Murphy stays chairman and CEO. Lumentum CEO Michael Hurlston joins Marvell's board, along with two other Lumentum directors, making a ten-seat board.

Both companies' shareholders must approve the deal, and regulators must clear it. Marvell expects it to close in the first half of calendar 2028, more than a year away. The release does not give a termination fee.

What we don't know yet

The announcement gives no revenue figures for either company. Marvell only says it is keeping the midpoint of its third-quarter guidance and narrowing the range to plus or minus 2%, from 5%.

What to watch: the regulatory reviews and the proxy statement, which will describe how the talks went.

Sources

  1. Marvell and Lumentum joint press release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)Marvell Technology / SEC
  2. Marvell Technology Form 8-KSEC