Atmel, Dialog deal on standby as counter offer surfaces

Atmel Corp. has stated that it has received an unsolicited proposal to buy the company that its board of directors is obliged to consider. The MCU supplier did not reveal the name of the bidder but it has been previously reported that Cypress Semiconductor could try to outdo an agreed bid from Dialog Semiconductor.

Atmel had agreed a $4.6 billion merger with Dialog that is expected to close in 1Q16. However under the terms of the latest proposal Atmel shareholders would receive $9 in cash per share. As an alternative up to $1 billion of that bid could be received as shares in the proposed acquirer.

The value of Dialog's bid, $10.42 per Atmel share made up of $4.65 in cash and 0.112 of a Dialog American Depository Share based on Dialog's closing stock price as of 18 September 2015, may have fallen with Dialog's share price since then.

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Atmel said that the latest bid could result in a better offer and that board of directors had been advised that it could be a breach of their fiduciary duty not to consider the bid. However, for now the board continues to recommend to its stockholders the adoption of the merger agreement with Dialog.

Dialog is a fabless chip company that sells chips for mixed-signal, RF, power control functions in smartphones and mobile consumer equipment. Atmel focuses on MCUs that provide computing power for consumer and industrial applications.

- Peter Clarke
??EE Times Europe

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