SiliconBeat

Leadis Technology, the Sunnyvale chip maker that has been selling itself off bit by bit, said today that Integrated Device Technology has agreed to buy assets related to Leadis’s touch sensor business. The deal, which closed Wednesday, calls for IDT to pay Leadis $6.25 million. IDT offered employment “to certain employees” affiliated with the business.

Several investors have been Read the rest of this entry »

VeriFone, the San Jose maker of point-of-sale electronic payment systems, said that GTCR Golder Rauner, a private equity firm that led the company’s initial recapitalization in 2002 and has continued to be a major shareholder since, has told the company it has distributed about 7 million of its shares to their fund participants.

The Chicago firm, which owned Read the rest of this entry »

IPass, the Redwood City developer of business-mobility software whose board has spent much of the last two years struggling with large and disgruntled investors, has agreed to “take steps to return to shareholders” up to $40 million, according to a deal it has reached with Foxhill Master Fund. Foxhill, which owns about 7 percent of iPass’s outstanding shares, had launched a proxy battle to declassify the iPass board, forcing all directors to stand for re-election each year rather than serving in various overlapping terms. It also nominated three people of its own choosing to serve on the iPass board.

One of the three, Kenneth Traub, has been Read the rest of this entry »

Oclaro, the San Jose fiber optics component supplier formed by the April merger of Bookham and Avanex has a new largest shareholder: LeRoy Kopp. According to a regulatory filing Tuesday, Kopp and his Minnesota investment firm, Kopp Investment Advisors, have acquired 9.3 million shares of Oclaro, or about 5 percent of its outstanding shares.

As of May 26, Kopp and his firm owned about Read the rest of this entry »

SumTotal Systems, the object of competing private equity firm’s affections, said today in a filing that it had received yet another counter offer from Vista Equity, although it did not disclose the price.

Vista originally sought to buy the company in early April for Read the rest of this entry »

Versant, the Redwood City developer of data management software, has a new investor who thinks the company’s shares “do not adequately reflect the potential value of the Company’s underlying business and assets.”

Discovery Group, a merchant banker based in Chicago, disclosed having acquired 203,382 shares of Versant, for which it paid Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

In what should be music to the ears of at least some of its investors, Leadis Technology, said Monday that it last week sold some of its development-stage intellectual property to a “publicly-traded supplier of analog and mixed-signal” semiconductors for $2.3 million.

Leadis  received $2 million of the total at the close Read the rest of this entry »

Ditech Networks, the Fremont telecom equipment provider that Wall Street values about 40 percent below the amount of cash and short-term investments  on its balance sheet, was asked to consider an offer to buy the company for about $32.8 million, or $1.25 a share, 28 percent higher than the stock’s closing price the day before Read the rest of this entry »

The parent company of Silicon Valley Bank reported a “significant increase” in its provision for loan losses during its fourth quarter that it blamed on the “deteriorating economy” in general and on the “current estimated impact of loans including loans to HRJ Capital” in particular.

HRJ Capital, you may recall, is the Woodside investment firm made famous by Hall of Famers Read the rest of this entry »