For a third time, Actel has extended the deadline for nominees to its board of directors at the request of Ramius, a relatively new major shareholder with a lot of ideas about how Actel should go about increasing stockholder value.
Nominations must now be submitted by the close of business Read the rest of this entry »
Actel, the Mountain View chip maker, extended the deadline for director nominations a second time at the request of one of its largest shareholders, Ramius, a New York-based “alternative” investment firm that offered a detailed critique of Actel’s business back in November,
Actel first extended the deadline on Feb. 13 by a week to Feb. 20 but the day before that deadline Read the rest of this entry »
Actel, the Mountain View based maker of low-power and mixed-signal programmable chips, announced today “a company-wide restructuring plan that embodies a shift in corporate philosophy making profitability more important than sales growth.”
The company said it expects to incur charges of Read the rest of this entry »
Actel announced that Chief Financial Officer Jon Anderson 9pictured) died unexpectedly Monday from complications following a recent hospitalization, according to a press release the company put out Wednesday. He was 50 years old.
Anderson joined Actel in 1998 as controller and had been CFO since August 2001. From 1987 until joining Actel, he worked at National Semiconductor, ending his time there as director of dinance for its local area networks division. He served as Read the rest of this entry »
Actel’s third largest shareholder, Ramius, sent a letter Wednesday to that company’s chief executive, John East, as a follow up to a meeting they had Oct. 21 at Actel’s headquarters which Ramius partner Jeffrey Smith said “was extremely helpful to us in gaining a better understanding of Actel, the challenges it faces, and the future opportunities it hopes to capture. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with you and your senior management team.”
The letter then got down to business. Read the rest of this entry »
Actel, the Mountain View maker of power-control chips, fired 60 people Thursday, or about 10 percent of its work force. The company says that the layoffs, along with “other cost-saving measures”, will improve its operating expenses by about $2.5 million. The company estimates that it will be taking accounting charges related to the job cuts of about $3 million.
Last month Actel said that sales for its third quarter ended Sept. 30 would drop more than it had previously forecast, although it predicted its operating margin would actually improve, something which we found curious at the time.
Actel shares, which fell $1.01, or 8.9 percent, to $10.40 the day before on no apparent news, rose $1.17, or 11.3 percent to $11.57 in regular trading today, before the layoff news was released.
First, the bad news: Actel, the Mountain View maker of “power-smart” chips, lowered its sales guidance for its third quarter ending this month. It now expects sales to drop by 7 to 9 percent from the prior quarter, a bigger slide than the 1 to 3 percent drop it had previously forecast. The company attributes the slower sales picture “primarily to weakness in the Asian consumer market.”
Now the good news: Read the rest of this entry »
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