The Americans claim Avago is a “little known company”. It may not be that well known under that brand; but was what was once known as “HP Semiconductors” who helped invent LEDs and all sorts of other useful things. Its brains seem to be in Singapore rather than the USA which might be why the US don’t shout about it as much….
Agilent (spun off from HP around the same time) might be better known; they make high quality test equipment for people much brainier than I am and whose labs have bigger pockets. Then again not many people seem to know about NXP but “Philips Semiconductors” is familiar at least to those in their 30s and above; a friend in Malaysia who is my age (but is far cleverer, became a Professor in Scotland, teaches electronic repair to half of Asia and speaks about 5 languages) still refers to the “Philips Semiconductor guide” even though its now an NXP datasheet catalogue.
Broadcom today make a lot of important chips used widely in laptops, desktops, embedded systems and the Raspberry PI.
Broadcom to be acquired for $37 billion in largest ever tech deal | Ars Technica UK
