SiliconBeat

Integrated Silicon Solution fired a warning shot at potential acquirers last week when its board adopted an “ISSI Stockholder Rights Policy” that fell short of putting a plan in place but emphasized that “in the event that (the company) is the target of coercive or abusive takeover tactics, including opportunistic bids which fail to adequately take into account (the company’s) long-term value”, it was prepared to adopt a “stockholder rights plan,” AKA a poison pill.

The fabless San Jose semiconductor company has attracted two new greater-than-five-percent shareholders this year, Read the rest of this entry »

Funds run by Austin Marxe and David Greenhouse will be excluded from the definition of an “Acquiring Person” under PlanetOut’s shareholder rights agreement, commonly referred to as a “poison pill”, despite the fact that the two investors have acquired more than Read the rest of this entry »

Micrel, the San Jose chip maker that won a nasty proxy battle last year with its then-largest independent shareholder, Obrem Capital, decided it better extend its poison-pill defense against hostile takeovers by one more year. The shareholder rights plan  set up a year ago was to have expired today, but will now live on until March 24, 2010, according to a regulatory filing.

On March 19, Micrel entered into a Read the rest of this entry »

CV Therapeutics, the Palo Alto maker of the chest-pain treatment drug, Ranexa, said Friday the company’s board turned down an offer to buy it for $16 a share from Japan’s second-largest drug maker, Astellas Pharma.

We posted last month about the first offer Read the rest of this entry »

If LogicVision intended to deter Virage Logic’s unsolicited offer to buy the company for $1.05 a share by adopting a shareholder rights plan commonly referred to as a poison pill on Tuesday, the tactic worked like a charm.

Daniel McCranie, chairman of Virage Logic’s board, sent LogicVision’s board a letter the very next day withdrawing the offer: Read the rest of this entry »

A month after borrowing $25 million at a minimum of 12.5 percent, the parent company of the Jamba Juice franchise, said today that its board of directors has adopted a “Stock Purchase Rights Plan” that it says is “designed to enable all Jamba Inc. stockholders to realize the full value of their investment” and to provide them “fair and equal treatment” in the event that “an unsolicited attempt is made to acquire the company “without paying all stockholders full and fair value,” according to a press release the company issued this morning.

The market is pegging that value at Read the rest of this entry »

AP Pharma decided to increase the amount of shares its biggest shareholder may accumulate before the company would need to swallow its poison pill, er, shareholder rights plan in order to deter him from gaining control, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

On Oct. 1, AP Pharma (ticker: APPA) amended its Preferred Shares Rights Agreement dated Dec. 18, 2006, to allow  Kevin Tang and his affiliated companies to acquire up to Read the rest of this entry »

Trident Microsystems shares got hammered after hours on Monday after the company reported a slew of news, including results for its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter and guidance for its current quarter, a 10-year extension of its shareholder rights plan (AKA poison pill), and the permanent appointment of the company’s previously interim chief financial officer. Read the rest of this entry »

Shares of Asyst Technologies shot up 28.6 percent, or $1.12, to $5.03 Wednesday after the company revealed that it’s board is mulling over another offer to buy the maker of chip-making equipment.

The offer came from Aquest Systems, a company headed Mihir Parikh, an Asyst founder and former chief executive who in 2003 alleged Read the rest of this entry »

Back in November the board of LookSmart, the San Francisco supplier of online advertising software, enacted an anti-takeover device known in governance parlance as a shareholder rights plan, more commonly called a “poison pill,” designed to be swallowed in the event of a hostile takeover bid.

Under the plan, current shareholders were given options to buy Read the rest of this entry »