SiliconBeat

Spansion, the Sunnyvale flash-memory maker, chose to borrow $74.8 million of the $85 million available to it under an agreement with UBS, the Swiss investment banker that holds auction-rate securities that were worth $121.9 million when Spansion first bought them. The investment has a current estimated market value of $107.4 million, according to a filing Spansion made Monday.

Auction-rate securities (ARS) are typically typically corporate or municipal bonds with a long-term maturity horizon whose interest rates are reset periodically through auctions held as often as every week. The market for them has been frozen since February making it impossible for investors to access them for want of any buyers.

UBS has agreed to make good on the value of Spansion’s original investment by guaranteeing that it will buy the securities sometime between Read the rest of this entry »