Silicon Storage Technology to be Acquired by Microchip Technology

Silicon Storage Technology (News - Alert), Inc., or “SST,” a memory and non-memory products provider for high-volume applications in the digital consumer, networking, wireless communications and Internet computing markets, has reportedly entered into a definitive merger agreement with Microchip Technology (News - Alert) Inc., a provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors.

As per the agreement Microchip will acquire all of SST's outstanding common stock for $2.85 per share in cash.  

SST also announced that immediately prior to its entry into the merger agreement with Microchip it had terminated its previously announced merger agreement with Technology Resources Holdings following the expiration of the notice period granted to TRH under the TRH merger agreement. 

“Throughout our strategic process, we have demonstrated our commitment to shareholder interests, and we are very pleased with this result,” said Ronald Chwang, chairman of the strategic committee, adding that, as a result of the rigorous and comprehensive process, the company is confident that the proposed merger with Microchip achieves the best transaction for all SST shareholders.  

“SST's SuperFlash technology and extensive patent portfolio are critical building blocks for advanced microcontrollers,” said Steve Sanghi, president and CEO of Microchip.  

Sanghi said that this acquisition enables Microchip to gain earlier access to SST's advanced technologies, as well as the ability to customize technology variants that can give the company an advantage over competing technologies.  

“We believe this is an attractive transaction for SST's stockholders, as it presents a significant premium to the prior transaction and requires no external financing,” he added.

Earlier in January Microchip Technology had announced that it has acquired ZeroG Wireless (News - Alert), Inc., a major player in low-power embedded Wi-Fi solutions based in Sunnyvale, Calif. 

ZeroG is a privately held fabless semiconductor developer of Wi-Fi-certified transceivers and FCC (News - Alert)-certified modules, which further strengthen Microchip’s wireless offerings by enabling embedded designers to easily connect to this ubiquitous networking protocol with any 8-, 16- or 32-bit PIC microcontroller.