Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Simtek hires firm to assess buyout offer

Simtek Corp. has hired Pagemill Partners LLC as its financial adviser to evaluate a buyout offer from Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and “other strategic options.”

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Pagemill represented Simtek in its 2005 acquisition of Zentrum Mikroelektronik Dresden AG. Simtek CEO Harold Blomquist said the company has “maintained close working relations with the senior members of the Pagemill team” since that deal.

Cypress disclosed last week it had approached Simtek about buying the company. San Jose, Calif.-based Cypress owns 6 percent of Simtek’s stock and has warrants allowing it to boost that interest to 19.3 percent and is developing a line of chips with Simtek.

Colorado Springs-based Simtek employs 72 people to design and market chips made under contract by other companies in Asia, mostly for servers used to store data.

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