Broadcom May Pay About $60 Billion for VMware With Announcement Thursday

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Chip maker titan

Broadcom

may announce a deal to purchase software company

VMware

for about $60 billion on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The two sides are working on a cash and stock deal at about $140-a-share, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the talks. That would be a 50% premium to

VMware
’s
(ticker: VMW) share level on Friday, before news of the deal broke. The price isn’t yet set and the talks could still fall apart, according to the report.

It also said

Broadcom

(AVGO) is talking to banks about financing the deal with a $40 billion debt package.

Both companies were approached after hours for comment.

The acquisition would be one of the biggest of the year so far and larger than Elon Musk’s proposed $44 billion bid to take social media site

Twitter

(TWTR) private.

Microsoft

(MSFT) has agreed to buy videogame company

Activision Blizzard

(ATVI) for about $75 billion.

Still, the pace of mergers and acquisitions has slowed this year as stock prices plummeted, with the S&P 500 now on the brink of a bear market.

VMware rose 1% in after hours trading Tuesday to $117.20. Broadcom, with a market capitalization of more than $200 billion, gained 0.6% to $527.21.

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