Thursday, July 24, 2008

Zarlink: Outcome and Issues

Zarlink Semiconductor is claiming victory after a proxy contest at yesterday's annual shareholder's meeting.

All management nominess for the board of directors, it appears, have been elected.

As to the underlying issues, they seem to come down to the acquisition of Legerity Holdings Inc., a developer of voice integrated circuits (ICs) for high-voltage, analog mixed-signal semiconductor and software technologies.

It was only 13 months ago that Zarlink (of Ottawa Canada)and Legerity (of Texas) signed the contract providing for the acquisition of the latter by the former. The deal closed last August 3.

After less than a year, then, the Leckie group apparently decided the conjunction had proven a failure, and as a result are proposing sweeping changes in the combined operation's management.

I know the hi-tech world is fast moving, but that does seem to be drawing one's guns too quickly.

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