So far this year, the shares of Atheros Communications (NASDAQ: ATHR) have performed quite nicely, almost doubling. The company develops sophisticated semiconductor solutions for wireless and wired communications.

Now, Atheros wants to bulk up; that is, the company has agreed to pay $244 million for Intellon (NASDAQ: ITLN).

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Novartis, Waste Systems, AirMedia Group, and PAETEC Holding were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Novartis (NYSE: NVS) was initated with a Neutral at Cowen, which cited the company's upcoming patent expirations.
  
• Gabelli initiated Waste Systems (NASDAQ: WSII) with a Buy, as it believes consolidated operations in Florida, increased waste internalization, and continued price increases, should lead to expanding EBIT margins.
  
• Oppenheimer initiated AirMedia Group (NASDAQ: AMCN) with an Outperform, as it believes that the Beijing Olympics will help the company acheive better than expected earnings.
  
• Deutsche Bank initiated PAETEC Holding (NASDAQ: PAET) with a Buy, as the firm believes PATEC is well-positioned to benefit from improving industry conditions.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Wachovia started Seaspan (NYSE: SSW) with a Market Perform.
• Needham initiated Memsic (NASDAQ: MEMS) with a Buy.
• Oppenheimer started Intellon (NASDAQ: ITLN) with an Outperform.
• Morgan Stanley initiated Dice Holdings (NYSE: DHX) with an Equal Weight.

Over the next few years, we should see the emergence of the so-called digital home. But it requires some tough technology. And a major player in the space is Intellon (with about 15 years' experience).

To ramp things up, the company has filed to go public.

Essentially, Intellon is a fabless semiconductor operator and its chips allow for high-speed communications over existing wiring. In other words, it's possible for a person do things like download video on a computer and share it on a television in another room.

it's pretty cool stuff and the technology has 25 issued patents – and there are 29 pending. And the business is certainly robust. Over the past year, revenues surged from $16.6 million to $33.7 million.

The lead underwriters include Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Deutsche Bank Securities. The proposed ticker symbol is ITLN. The company's prospectus is on the SEC website. And, if you want to see more recent IPO filings, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.