SiliconBeat

Yesterday, the board of directors at Cypress Semiconductor set up a committee that will be authorized to approve the distribution to its stockholders of the shares it owns of SunPower, the maker of chips used in the generation of solar energy that it spun out into a separate company in 2005.

The special committee is expected to approve the distribution after the Securities and Exchange Commission completes its review of SunPower’s preliminary information statement filed with the SEC on August 12, according to a filing Friday.

Assuming a timely resolution of the SEC’s comments to SunPower’s information statement and final approval by the committee, the record date is currently anticipated to occur in September 2008 and the distribution date is currently anticipated to occur in the first half of October 2008 or earlier, if practicable. This anticipated timing reflects current expectations only and may not be achieved.

Cypress sold 2.5 million shares of SunPower on Monday that were worth about $221 million at the close of trading that day. It is authorized to sell 500,000 more, although it has “no present intention” to do so.

SunPower, which first sold its shares to the public at $18, has sold additional shares in three separate secondary offerings, most recently 2.45 million shares in July 2007 that fetched $64.50 each. SunPower’s stock, which hit as high as $164.49 last November, has lost 26 percent so far in 2008.