Uphill Investment topped Cypress Semiconductor with an offer of $732 million Friday in the latest round of bidding for Silicon Valley chip maker Integrated Silicon Solution Inc.
Thursday, Cypress announced an offer of $707 million for the Milpitas memory chip maker.
ISSI s board said it continues to recommend that shareholders vote for the Uphill proposal, now $22 per share, and scheduled a shareholders meeting for June 25.
Cypress offer of $21.25 per share had bested Uphill s $21 per share, and also met several objections ISSI s board had to earlier proposals. To allay concerns that it would take too long to get regulators okay for the deal, Cypress added a ticking fee of 10 cents per share for each additional quarter after October 1 that it took to gain regulatory approvals for the transaction.
Uphill and Cypress have been in a bidding war for ISSI since May, when Cypress complained that it hadn t been invited to bid for the company, and topped an offer made by Uphill which ISSI was ready to sign,
ISSI s automotive and industrial customer base is a good match for Cypress, while China is on a push to ramp up its domestic chip industry through investment, innovation and acquisition.
Cypress has been in an acquiring mode too, agreeing to pay $1.6 billion for valley chip company Spansion in December.
Photo: ISSI logo
