Marvell-ous sale for Intel

is to sell its communications and application processor business to

for $600 million cash, boosting Marvell’s presence in the handheld device processors market. The transaction is expected to close in approximately four to five months and is subject to regulatory review and other normal closing conditions.

Intel said the sale will enable the company to focus its investments on its core businesses, including high-performance, low-power Intel Architecture-based processors and emerging technologies for mobile computing, including Wi-Fi and WiMAX broadband wireless technologies.

Intel’s communications and application processor business develops and sells processors for handheld devices including smart phones and PDAs. The business’ processors, based on Intel XScale technology, include the PXA9xx communications processor, codenamed “Hermon,” which powers the Blackberry.

Intel’s communications and application processor business employs approximately 1,400 staff involved in a variety of functions, including engineering, product testing/validation, operations and marketing. It is expected that the vast majority of these employees will become employees of Marvell.