Broadcom to Buy Digital Furnace

Chip developer Broadcom Corp. said it will buy a small Atlanta software company for about $136 million in stock, marking its latest purchase in a shopping spree for cutting-edge technology begun more than a year ago. Digital Furnace Corp., which has developed the means to boost cable modem performance by as much as three times, is the seventh firm the Irvine manufacturer has bought since January 1999.