Broadcom, a global technology leader that designs, develops, and supplies a broad range of semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions, has announced a $61(roughly Rs. 4,73,223 crore) billion deal to buy VMware. Broadcom will assume $8 billion of VMware debt as part of the purchase, a mix of cash and stock. The deal is the world’s second-largest announced so far this year. It will aid in the chipmaker’s expansion into corporate software. Only Microsoft Corp’s $68.7 billion acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard Inc comes close. Broadcom benefits from VMware in ways other than the company’s core virtualization technology. It also receives other components, such as Heptio for containerization and Pivotal for support services for businesses switching to modern technology.

With the acquisition of VMware, Futurum Research analyst Daniel Newman believes Broadcom would be instantly acknowledged as a significant software company. Raghu Raghuram, CEO of VMware, placed the purchase in the usual positive light, claiming that the two firms would be better together. He added, “Combining our assets and brilliant team with Broadcom’s current business software portfolio, all housed under the VMware brand, creates a great enterprise software player.” He was referring to the two other pieces Broadcom already owns.