COLORADO SPRINGS — Cypress Semiconductor Corp. on Monday raised its unsolicited bid for Colorado Springs chip company Ramtron International Corp. to $98.9 million after a tepid response from Ramtron’s shareholders to its previous offer.
California-based Cypress offered $2.88 a share, up 20 cents from its previous $2.68-a-share bid made July 5. Cypress also extended its previous Aug. 24 deadline to Sept. 11 for stockholders to accept the company’s offer.
Ramtron has spurned three offers from Cypress as undervaluing the company’s “intellectual property and (ferroelectric memory) technological expertise” as well as its growth prospects. Owners of just 8.8 percent of Ramtron’s shares, or 3.02 million shares, had agreed to sell to Cypress.
Cypress CEO T.J. Rodgers hinted in a newsrelease announcing the new offer that talks are underway between the two companies, saying he was “pleased that the financial advisers to Cypress and Ramtron have begun to engage in discussions. We are increasing our offer in the hopes of completing a transaction quickly, which we believe is in the best interest of Cypress, as well as Ramtron’s stockholders.”
Ramtron officials have not yet responded to the new offer, though the company’s shares jumped 24 cents, or 9.1 percent, to $2.87 in heavy trading Monday morning on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Cypress has made two previous offers this year and another last year, bidding $3.01 a share in March 2011 and renewing its pursuit of Ramtron with a $2.48-a-share offer on June 12. The latest Cypress offer is 59 percent more than Ramtron’s June 11 closing stock price of $1.81.
