California-headquartered Novafora Inc. (formerly known as Sipharos) has agreed to acquire Transmeta Corp. for about $255.6 million in cash deal.

Transmeta Corporation develops and licenses innovative computing, microprocessor and semiconductor technologies and related intellectual property.

Under the arrangement, Shareholders in Santa Clara-based semiconductor technology business Transmeta will paid between $18.70 and $19 per share.

The merger has been unanimously sanctioned by both companies’ board of directors, but the deal is subject to Transmeta’s stockholder approval and other customary closing conditions.

In a separate deal, Transmeta Corp has entered into a non-exclusive patent license agreement with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), under which AMD will transfer 700,000 shares of Transmeta’s Series B Preferred Stock to Transmeta.

Novafora Inc. founded in 2005, operates as a fabless semiconductor company. The company develops digital video silicons for the video processing sector.

The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2009.