Wireless technology major Qualcomm will snap up Atheros Communications in an all-cash $3.1 billion deal that will help in expanding the US firm's semiconductor business. Atheros offers technologies for wireless and wired communications.

Qualcomm said it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Atheros for $45 per share in cash, representing an enterprise value of $3.1 billion.

This is among the first big ticket deals to be announced in 2011. According to Qualcomm, the proposed transaction would accelerate the company's expansion of Semiconductor business.

"The acquisition is intended to help accelerate the expansion of Qualcomm's technologies and platforms to new businesses beyond cellular and provide access to significant new growth opportunities," it said in a statement.

Subject to shareholders' and regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2011.

Atheros' current president and CEO Craig H Barratt is expected to join Qualcomm as president of Qualcomm Networking & Connectivity.

"It is Qualcomm's strategy to continually integrate additional technologies into mobile devices to make them the primary way that people communicate, compute and access content," Qualcomm chairman and CEO Paul E Jacobs said.