Selling storage

, a provider of high-speed broadband communications and storage semiconductors, has entered into an agreement with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver Lake Partners to acquire the storage semiconductor business of

for approximately $425 million in cash.

The storage semiconductor business is part of Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group, which KKR and Silver Lake Partners are in the process of acquiring.

According to a statement, the acquisition ‘significantly strengthens PMC-Sierra's position in the storage semiconductor market and creates one of the industry's most complete end-to-end enterprise storage silicon solutions’.

The storage semiconductor business of Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group (SPG) is a long-term technology leader in Fibre Channel protocol controllers with its Tachyon product line and is developing next-generation multi-protocol controllers supporting Fibre Channel and SAS/SATA/iSCSI storage systems, as well as other storage-related products. When closed, the acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive for PMC-Sierra.

The business being acquired by PMC-Sierra, which currently operates as the I/O Solutions Division of Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group, employs approximately 240 employees and has design centres located in Santa Clara, Roseville (CA), and Singapore.