Anadigics has received two more buyout offers, the latest action in the bidding war that started after an investment firm vowed to pay $35 million for the business, which not only sells power amplifiers but also runs the gallium arsenide fab where those parts are made.
This month, II-VI, which makes optical chips on similar factory equipment, offered almost twice the original price tag of $0.35 per share. And on Monday, Anadigics disclosed that a suitor that asked to remain anonymous had upped the bid from $0.66 to $0.76 per share.
The spontaneous auction began in November after the investment firm GaAs Labs announced its $35 million deal for Anadigics, which sells a wide array of reverse-path amplifiers and other chips based on gallium arsenide – more commonly known as GaAs – for cellular infrastructure. As the industry’s center of gravity shifted, it also made forays into indium gallium-phosphide (InGaP) and gallium nitride.
As part of the deal, Anadigics could shop for higher offers on the business, which had suffered deep losses in recent years and whose stock traded at $0.21 before the bidding war started. The company said that it had several suitors , most of which asked to remain anonymous.
Francis Kramer, the chief executive of II-VI, expressed interest in the company’s GaAs wafer fab, which could be repurposed for semiconductor lasers used in fiber optics and computer interfaces. The factory’s equipment can output wafers measuring six inches in diameter.
II-VI did not respond to questions asking what would happen to Anadigics’ business and how it would support customers. If it accepted the original deal, Anadigics would have joined Macom Technology Solutions and Nitronix under the GaAs Labs banner.