CEVA and Imagination fights over MIPS: the price soared to $90 million

11 December, 2012

CEVA offered today $90 million in cash for MIPS Technologies. Its competitor, Imagination Technologies, that had signed an agreement for $80 million, said it "monitors the situation"

President and Chief Executive Officer of MIPS, Sandeep Vij

In a direct competition against Imagination Technologies, today CEVA raised the bar and offered $90 million for the assets and activities of MIPS Technologies. Imagination replied briefly: “Imagination is monitoring the situation and will provide a further update in due course.”

MIPS provide industry-standard processor architectures 32- and 64-bit and cores for digital applications.The two companies fights over MIPS in order to leverage their products to full-scale SoC platforms. On November 5 MIPS had announced that Imagination Technologies Group plc would acquire the outstanding MIPS shares following the patent sale transaction with Bridge Crossing, for $60 million (U.S.) in cash.

But on November 20, MIPS had received an unsolicited proposal from CEVA to acquire its shares for $75 million (U.S.) in cash. Although the President and Chief Executive Officer of MIPS, Sandeep Vij, mentioned in a letter to the employees that he prefers Imagination’s deal, the tide turned against him.

Following the offer, the former United States Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Willie Briscoe and the securities litigation firm of Powers Taylor, LLP said they are investigating the sale of MIPS Technologiesto Imagination Group.

More over, the Board of Directors of MIPS published a statement saing that “CEVA proposal could lead to a superior transaction” and the Board is “determined to engage in discussions with CEVA”.

Imagination reacted by raising the acquisition price to $80 million and signed a revised merger agreement with MIPS in the beginning of the week. But today CEVA announced that it submitted a further proposal to the Board of Directors of MIPS Technologies, to acquire MIPS for $90 million plus the payment on MIPS’ behalf of the termination fee to Imagination existing merger agreement. Imagination said it monitors the situation, which means the competition is not over yet.

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Posted in: Business , News , Semiconductors

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