SiliconBeat

Equinix, the Foster City supplier of data-center hosting,  said today in a regulatory filing that it “is not aware of any undisclosed accounting
matters affecting the company.

Several investors had contacted the company to inquire about a rumor in the market regarding Read the rest of this entry »

Immersion, the San Jose provider of hardware and software “touch” technologies used in digital devices said in a filing today that its audit committee has begun an internal investigation into “certain previous revenue transactions in its Medical line of business. The company said the investigation is being conducted “with the assistance of outside counsel”.

The company did not rule out the possibility of Read the rest of this entry »

Silicon Graphics will have its shares delisted from the Nasdaq stock market beginning Thursday morning, according to an SEC filing it made Monday. The news was delivered last week to the Sunnyvale computer maker in a letter from Nasdaq that said the company had failed to become compliant with a rule that the company maintain Read the rest of this entry »

Bryant Riley, who filed a shareholder lawsuit against Transmeta in January and said in May he intended to mount a proxy fight at the company’s next annual meeting to have himself and a cohort nominated to its board, will now be nominated to the board by the company itself, according to an agreement announced Tuesday.

Transmeta also agreed to increase its board size from seven to nine directors, and to immediately name to it J. Michael Gullard, who serves on the board of directors at Alliance Semiconductor along with Riley and Melvin Keating, whom Riley had originally nominated along with himself to the Transmeta board.

Riley also agreed to acquire no more than Read the rest of this entry »

Asyst Technologies, the Fremont chip-making equipment manufacturer, said that it received word that a hedge fund run by Bryant Riley intends to nominate its own slate of six directors to “in an attempt to gain control of Asyst’s Board of Directors,” according to a press release put out by Asyst Wednesday afternoon. If elected, the new directors “intend to sell (Asyst) through an auction process” according to the release. Read the rest of this entry »

Ray Zinn, Micrel’s president, chief executive of Micrel and single largest individual shareholder, issued a statement today that essentially said there were no hard feelings over its nasty proxy battle with Obrem Capital Management, which amassed a 14.9 percent stake in the San Jose chip maker earlier this year and then tried replace current board with one of its own choosing at Micrel’s shareholder meeting Tuesday, an effort which it reportedly lost “overwhelmingly”. Here’s what Zinn had to say: Read the rest of this entry »

We return to the ongoing struggle for the hearts and minds, OK, the votes, of Micrel shareholders in the contest between the company’s own board and an opposing slate of six directors nominated by Obrem Capital Management, its largest independent shareholder. Micrel put out a release today headlined: “All Four Independent Proxy Voting Advisory Firms Recommend Against Obrem Proposals to Take Over Company at May 20 Special Meeting.”

The latest recommendation from shareholder advisory firm Proxy Governance included this witticism: “This proxy challenge may single-handedly redefine the term ‘ill-advised.’ ” Read the rest of this entry »

What do California Micro Devices and Ikanos Communications have in common? Both are semiconductor firms located in Silicon Valley, both have stock prices that hit 52-week lows in the last month and both have a new major shareholder called Dialectic Capital Management, a New York hedge fund.

In a form filed Wednesday, Dialectic reported for the first time owning 1.27 million shares of California Micro Devices (ticker CAMD), or 5.5 percent of shares outstanding. No word at this time on what it paid for the shares, but California Micro hit a 52-week low of $3.56 on Aug 22. Its shares climbed 22 cents Wednesday, or 5.7 percent, to $4.10 Wednesday.

It filed another form reporting it had acquired 1.66 million shares of Ikanos Communications (ticker:IKAN), or 5.8 percent of the company. Shares of Ikanos climbed 11 cents, or two percent Wednesday, bouncing back after hitting a 52-week low of $5.55 early in the trading day.

The hedge fund is managed by John and Luke Fichthorn, who also run Dialectic Antithesis Partners.

Phronesis Partners, an Ohio-based hedge fund that takes its name from a Greek term used by the philosopher Aristotle to denote “”practical wisdom,” or “”prudence,” disclosed Tuesday in an SEC filing that it is now the largest owner of of a company that has yet to show a profit and has accumulated losses to the tune of $218 million since its founding in 1993.

Read the rest of this entry »