Elliott Urges Dialog Holders to Vote No on Atmel
November 09 2015 - 6:40PM
Dow Jones News
FRANKFURT—Activist hedge fund Elliott Management called on
fellow shareholders in Dialog Semiconductor PLC to vote against the
U.K. based chip maker's planned $4.6 billion acquisition of U.S.
peer Atmel Corp. in a move that threatens to derail the deal.
In an open letter Monday, Elliott Associates LP and Elliott
International LP—two vehicles that jointly hold 2.9% in
Dialog—wrote: "We intend to vote against this value destructive
transaction at the forthcoming Dialog shareholder meeting [on 19
November] and we urge our fellow…shareholders to seize this
opportunity to try to reclaim that lost value by also VOTING
AGAINST [it],"
A spokeswoman for Dialog declined to comment.
Dialog, which was spun off from German luxury-car maker Daimler
Benz AG in 2000, needs 50% of shares voted to approve the
transactions to go ahead. The threshold, albeit lower than the
usual 75% requirement, might be tough to reach after proxy advisors
International Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis also
recommended voting against the deal.
Dialog, which sells chips used to manage power in high-end
smartphones, including those made by Apple Inc., in September
announced it reached an agreement to buy San Jose, Calif.-based
Atmel. Atmel is best known for chips called microcontrollers that
provide computing power for many kinds of consumer and business
hardware.
Jalal Bagherli, Dialog's chief executive, said the deal will
help the company reduce dependence on a few smartphone makers. At
the same time, he said, acquiring Atmel's customer base and line of
products will make Dialog a major player in chips for connected
cars, wearable devices and other networked gadgets lumped under the
catchall phrase Internet of Things.
But the Paul Singer-led Elliott believes the deal represents
$500 million in value destruction for Dialog investors because the
deal premium exceeds the expected synergies. Dialgog's share price
has fallen about 18% since the deal's announcement September
20.
Write to Eyk Henning at eyk.henning@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 09, 2015 18:25 ET (23:25 GMT)
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