SAN FRANCISCO — Intel has ended discussions to buy Altera, a designer of specialized computer chips, people briefed on the matter said on Thursday, putting to rest what would have been the company’s biggest-ever takeover.
The collapse of the talks halts what would have been the latest in a series of mergers of chip makers and designers as companies turn to consolidation to gain negotiating leverage with customers.
And yet investors still appear hopeful that Altera will ultimately be sold. Though shares of Altera initially fell after CNBC reported the end of negotiations, they closed up 3 percent on Thursday, at $43.33.
Shares in Intel ended down slightly, at $31.24.
Intel first made a takeover offer several weeks ago of more than $50 a share, a premium of more than 40 percent to Altera’s stock price at the time, one of the people said.
Ultimately, however, Altera rejected the approach, and talks between the two companies had gone quiet in recent days. It was unclear whether the talks would be revived.
Intel and Altera declined to comment.
In seeking to buy Altera, Intel was looking to diversify its offerings beyond chips for personal computers, a business that has declined as mobile devices like smartphones have grown in popularity.
Though known as one of the world’s technology giants, Intel has scrambled to adapt to a changing technology landscape in which personal computers are losing importance. The company has already had to grapple with a lower-than-expected sales forecast tied to weaker demand for new personal computers.
It has begun branching out into the manufacture of other kinds of chips, as well as technologies like smartwatches and security products that rely on the human body.
Altera, which has a market value of roughly $13 billion, focuses on a semiconductor whose functions can be reprogrammed even after the product has shipped.
That kind of chip, known as a field programmable gate array, is different from the standard processor that Intel makes in that it is much more adjustable and flexible. Though they have less power, the so-called F.P.G.A.s have become popular for a variety of uses in diverse products like cars, consumer devices and airplanes.
Even Intel has moved into the space, introducing a chip that is a hybrid of standard semiconductors and an F.P.G.A., promising greater speed and flexibility for certain tasks.
Still, the design of F.P.G.A.s is largely led by companies like Altera and Xilinx.
Altera, founded 22 years ago and based in San Jose, Calif., earned $472 million in profit and $1.9 billion in revenue last year.
A takeover would have been, by far, the biggest deal by Intel in its 46-year history. To date, its largest takeover was the $7.5 billion acquisition of McAfee, a security software maker. Just six of the company’s deals have been worth more than $1 billion.
Several analysts have said that they still think Intel will be on the hunt for acquisitions.
Over all, the semiconductor industry is being swept up in a growing wave of mergers as companies seek to gain greater scale and negotiating leverage with customers looking to shrink their lists of suppliers.
In the last two years alone, companies like Qualcomm and Infineon Technologies have struck acquisitions. In the fall of 2013, Applied Materials bought a Japanese rival, Tokyo Electron, for $9 billion.
And last month, NXP Semiconductors acquired a smaller rival, Freescale Semiconductor, for $11.8 billion to become a more formidable manufacturer of chips for autos and mobile payments.