Chartered Semiconductor Receives Takeover Proposal from ATIC – Rumours .

Advanced Technology Investment Company Reportedly Wants to Acquire Chartered

[05/28/2009 10:50 PM]
by Anton Shilov

Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) is reportedly interested in acquiring Chartered Semiconductor, the world’s third largest contract semiconductor manufacturer. The potential move may be considered quite strange as Chartered Semiconductor competes with Globalfoundries, a joint-venture by Advanced Micro Devices and ATIC.

According to The Business Times, Chartered has received a bid from ATIC to buy Temasek Holdings’ approximately 60% stake at between $2.40 and $2.60 a share. The $2.45 billion price tag represents a 19% premium to Chartered's market cap of about $2.05 billion, reports The Business Times.

For Chartered it is crucial to have a new investor willing to help the company. According to sources with knowledge of the matter, the semiconductor company has not started to invest into next-generation fabs, which means that in about a year or two from now Chartered will not be able to compete for designs that require 32nm or 28nm process technologies.

ATIC cannot make Chartered a part of Globalfoundries since in that case AMD’s stake in the company will erode and it can have legal issues with Intel regarding the license for x86 technology.

ATIC, Chartered and Temasek did not comment on the report.

Tags: Chartered, ATIC, Business, Semiconductor