Imagination won the dramatic race to acquire MIPS

17 December, 2012

Will pay $100 million for the operating business of MIPS Technologies. CEVA has decided to refrain from further proposals. CEO of CEVA: "we will continue to seek complementary technologies"

The competition between Imagination and CEVA raised MIPS’s price from $60 to $100 million

MIPS TechnologiesImagination Technologies Group will get MIPS for $100 million, after intense competition with CEVA DSP from Herzliya, Israel. The struggle over the assets and knowledge of the RISC computing architecure developer, MIPS Technoloies, started on November 5 when Imagination and MIPS signed a merger agreement for $60 million. CEVA annouced a counter offer of $75 million, and the price continued to rise.

But yesterday Imagination raised its offer to $100 million, and  CEVA decided to withdrow and announced today that it would not submit any further proposal to acquire the operating business of MIPS Technologies. Gideon Wertheizer, CEO of CEVA, commented: “While CEVA’s Board of Directors and management believed there was strategic merit in the combination of CEVA with MIPS, further increasing the purchase price would not meet our financial objectives.

“We believe it is in the best interests of our shareholders that our available cash be reserved for other potential opportunities in the future. As part of our corporate business strategy, we will continue to seek and evaluate complementary technologies and businesses that will meet our strategic and financial objectives.”

CEVA is a licensor of silicon intellectual property (SIP) DSP cores and platform solutions for the mobile, portable and consumer electronics markets. In 2011, CEVA’s IP was shipped in over 1 billion devices and powers handsets of manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Sony, Huawei and ZTE. Today, more than 40% of handsets shipped worldwide are powered by a CEVA DSP core.

After the withdrowal, MIPS Technologies announced that it entered into a new amendment to its merger agreement with Imagination Technologies Group. The latest amendment provides for a purchase price of $100 million (U.S.).  As a result, the net proceeds to each holder of MIPS common stock has increased to approximately $7.94 (U.S.) per share in cash.

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