By Ben Kolada In announcing its largest-ever deal, and paying a princely price at the same time, Broadcom (BRCM) is keeping the ball rolling in semiconductor networking M&A. The company's nearly $4bn pickup of NetLogic Microsystems ( NETL ) comes less than two months after rival Intel ( INTC ) announced a smaller strategic play of its own, and it likely won't be the last transaction before the buyout curtain closes. After a dearth of big-ticket semiconductor networking acquisitions, such vendors are now becoming hot properties. Before announcing its landmark NetLogic purchase, Broadcom itself bought networking provider Teknovus in February 2010 for $123m (in an earnings call, Broadcom mentioned that Teknovus generated revenue in the single digits of millions, which implies a price-to-sales valuation far north of 10x). And in July, Intel announced that it was acquiring Fulcrum Microsystems for a price we hear was in the ballpark of $175m, or about 13x trailing sales.