SiliconBeat

Lloyd Miller, a current and former investor in several Silicon Valley companies, disclosed Tuesday being the owner of a 5.9 percent stake in yet another: Ditech Communications of Mountain View.

According to a filing with the SEC, Miller will use his recent purchases of Ditech stock to support two directors nominated by another investor, Lamassu Holdings, which owns 9.1 percent of Ditech and is challenging the nominees put forward by the company’s current board.

Miller stated that he “seeks to encourage greater attention to corporate governance by all members” of Ditech’s board.

Lamassu, a Southern California investment firm that first disclosed owning a large chunk of Ditech in December, has offered to acquire the company outright, but has been frustrated by the company’s lack of interest.

Ditech, which reported having about $41 million in cash on hand at the end of January, is currently valued by investors at about $1.10 a share, giving it a market cap of $28.4 million. And that’s up by about a third since the end of the year. The company burned through almost $16 million during the nine-months ended Jan 31.

Ditech’s stock has been pummelled over the last five years, losing an average of 47 percent each year.

Among the valley companies Millier is, or has been, significantly invested in, are Alliance Semiconductor, Altigen Communications, Centillium Communications and Zilog.