Computer and mobile devices maker Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL)
on Friday agreed to buy sensor chips maker AuthenTec, Inc.(NASDAQ:AUTH) in a
deal valued at $356 million, AuthenTec said in a filing with the U.S. Securities
Exchange Commission.
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Apple has agreed to pay $8 a share, which
is a premium of about 58 percent to AuthenTec’s closing price of $5.07 on
Thursday. The chip maker’s shares soared nearly 63 percent in early morning
trades on the Nasdaq and was trading at $8.25 at 10.57 a.m.
Florida-based AuthenTec makes security
software and chips for mobile phones and fingerprint sensor chips that are used
in personal computers and has annual revenues of $70 million. The company said
Piper Jaffray was the adviser to the deal.
In
another takeover deal solid-state hard drive maker OCZ Technology Group
Inc.(NASDAQ:OCZ) saw its shares rising as much as 28 percent in early trades
after hardware blog Fudzilla.com reported that bigger rival Seagate Technology
Plc had offered to buy it out.
Seagate declined to
comment on the report and OCZ could not immediately be reached, though Fudzilla
said a deal could be announced next week. Microcon Technology Group is also
believed to be in the fray to acquire OCZ, the blog site said.
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OCZ shares surged more
than 26 percent in early trades on Friday and was quoted at $6.90 at 10.22 a.m.
on the Nasdaq. Seagate is looking to boost its solid state hard drive product
portfolio and the OCZ acquisition is expected to shore up its margins.
OCZ is a relatively
smaller player in the hard drive segment dominated by Seagate and Western
Digital Corp, both of whom have however been lagging behind in adoption of solid
state drives which is a faster technology.
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