The world's top chip maker Intel Corp said it agreed to buy Wind River Systems Inc. for about $884 million to gain a stronger foothold in the embedded systems and mobile handheld devices space.

The $11.50 per share cash offer for the software systems developer is almost a 44 percent premium to Wind River's closing price of $8 on Wednesday.

The transaction is expected to close this summer and on completion of the deal, Wind River will report into Intel's software and services group, the companies said in a statement.

Shares of Alameda, California-based Wind River were up 45 percent to $11.60 in trading before the bell.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy)