Cypress ups offer for Ramtron

Cypress ups offer for Ramtron

SAN ANTONIO—Cypress Semiconductor Corp. said Thursday (June 21) it has commenced a tender off to acquire all outstanding shares of Ramtron International Corp. for $2.68 per share, or about $95 million.

The offer is about $9 million more than Cypress said it would offer last week, when it went public with an offer to buy Ramtron, a maker of nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), for $2.48 per share.

Ramtron said Monday that its board of directors reviewed and rejected the Cypress proposal, but that the company would review its strategic options, including discussions with Cypress.

Cypress (San Jose, Calif.) said Thursday that its tender offer represents a 48 percent premium over Ramtron's closing price of $1.81 on June 11, the day before the company announced its offer. Ramtron's stock price has since increased on the news that Cypress would try to acquire the company.

"We are disappointed that Ramtron’s board of directors has again rejected our acquisition proposal and chosen to deny its stockholders the opportunity to achieve a substantial premium and immediate liquidity for their shares," said T.J. Rodgers, Cypress president and CEO, in a statement.

Rodgers said Ramtron's strategic review process could take months. Rodgers said Cypress's offer could be completed quickly and urged Ramtron shareholders to tender their shares. In so doing, they can send a clear message to Ramtron's board that it should set aside Ramtron’s 'poison pill' and support our offer," Rodgers said.

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