Cypress Semiconductor upped its offer for Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. Monday, topping a Chinese investment consortium s latest offer by 25 cents a share.
The offer of $22.25 a share, or $740 million, came in a letter from Cypress CEO and founder T.J.Rodgers to ISSI Executive Chairman Jimmy Lee, scolding the ISSI board for actions Rodgers said has resulted in the current protracted bidding process.
Cypress and Uphill Investment, a Chinese private equity consortium, have been topping one another in bidding for the Milpitas memory chip company ever since Cypress complained in May that it had not been invited to bid for the company. Before that, ISSI was prepared to sign with Uphill for $19.25 a share, or $639 million.
Rodgers wrote that had Cypress been included in the sale process, shareholders would have gotten a more time-efficient price-discovery process and the capture of a potential incremental $0.56 per share.
Instead, he wrote, that money was wasted on a break-up fee, referring to a termination fee in ISSI s agreement with Uphill if the deal with the consortium doesn t go through.
Rodgers also said ISSI should update its record date on the sale, because the current record date puts a meaningful portion of the voting in the hands of investors who no longer hold ISSI s stock.
Neither Uphill nor ISSI has been heard from — yet.
Photo: ISSI logo
