SiliconBeat

Micrel, the San Jose chip maker who last year successfully fought off a proxy battle with Obrem Capital, its largest independent stockholder, spent $20 million May 7 buying back 3.1 million more of Obrem’s holdings, in addition to the 1.6 million shares it purchased in February.

The company picked up the shares at a discount, paying $6.50 apiece, or about 10 percent lower than they were trading that day.

To finance the stock purchase Micrel used $15 million of $20 million it borrowed from Bank of the West on May 7, along with some of its own cash.

Also kicking in to help Obrem unload more of its holdings were Micrel board members Frank Schneider and Neil Miotto, along with Jung-Chen Lin, a Micrel vice president in charge of Ethernet products. Between them, they bought 16,000 more of Obrem’s shares for $104,065.

Obrem, which had at one time built up a 15 percent stake in Micrel for which it paid an average of $8 per share, now holds 5.76 million shares, or about 8.8 percent.