Cypress grabs Ramtron, at last

LONDON – After several rejections, Ramtron International Corp. (Colorado Springs, Colorado) Wednesday (Sept. 19) agreed to be acquired by Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (San Jose, Calif.) for $3.10 per share in cash. The deal is valued at $109.8 million, excluding assumed debt and options.

Cypress has been courting Ramtron, which develops ferroelectric RAM technology for use in discrete memories or as embedded non-volatile memory, for some time and has had several offers rejected as inadequate.

In June, Cypress revealed it had attempted to buy Ramtron in March 2011 at $3.01 per share. The agreed price of $3.10 represents a premium of 71 percent to Ramtron's closing price of $1.81 per share on June 11, the day before Cypress publicly disclosed its offer for Ramtron. Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.

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"The combination of Ramtron's FRAM technology with Cypress's nvSRAM business, considerable R&D resources, historically strong manufacturing capabilities, global sales organization, and deep extension into distribution channels will create a significant new entity in the nonvolatile memory business," said T.J. Rodgers, Cypress president and CEO, in a statement.

"Through the strategic alternative review process, the Ramtron board sought to determine a course of action that would enable Ramtron stockholders to fully realize the value inherent in the long-term growth prospects of the company. Ultimately, the board concluded that a combination with Cypress accomplishes that objective, and believes the transaction represents a positive outcome for Ramtron stockholders, customers, partners and employees," said William Howard, Ramtron chairman, in the same statement.


Related links and articles:

www.cypress.com

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