Chipmaker RF Micro Devices Inc will buy peer TriQuint Semiconductor Inc for about $1.6 billion to capture a larger share of the market for chips supplied to Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. RF Micro's shares rose as much as 18 percent in early trading on Monday. TriQuint shares, which will be exchanged for 1.675 shares of the merged entity, rose to $11.38. The offer was valued at $9.73 per TriQuint share, which represents a premium of 5.4 percent to the stock's Friday close. TriQuint supplies radio frequency chips that help connect cellphones to data and voice networks to Apple and BlackBerry Ltd. RF Micro, which makes amplifiers, power management, switch-based products and filters used for broadband mobile connectivity in smartphones, counts Samsung as its biggest customer.

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