24th Feb 09
Exar Corp to acquire Hifn Inc
Exar Corporation and Hifn Inc have signed a definitive agreement
under which Exar will acquire Hifn. Under the terms of the
agreement, which was unanimously approved by the board of
directors of each company, Exar will acquire all of the
outstanding shares of Hifn common stock pursuant to an exchange
offer, followed by a second step merger. In the exchange
offer, Hifn stockholders will be able to elect to receive
either (i) 0.3529 shares of Exar common stock and $1.60
in cash; or (ii) $4.00 in cash..
"We believe we can achieve our strategic and financial
objectives more quickly with the Hifn acquisition,"
said Pete Rodriguez, Exar's president and chief executive
officer. "The two companies have developed complementary
technologies and share a common vision to deliver connectivity
and storage solutions that are not only fast, but also efficient
and secure. We are delighted to welcome the Hifn team to
Exar," stated Mr. Rodriguez. "Our combined focus
will enable us to realize expanded revenue and market share,
aggressively pursue emerging markets, as well as increase
overall gross margin."
"As a developer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor
technology, Exar has focused on creating solutions for high
speed connectivity and managing data between computers,
over networks and across broadband telecom systems,"
said Paul Pickering, Exar senior vice president of marketing.
"For more than a decade, Hifn has been a pioneer in
creating advanced technologies that secure and compress
data flowing over networks and residing on storage systems.
Hifn's semiconductor and software solutions work hand in
hand with various high speed connections to ensure optimized
performance. We expect to advance our strategic relationship
with shared top tier customers including Cisco Systems,
Huawei Technologies, HP and Alcatel-Lucent."
"I am very excited about the compelling synergies
of the two companies," said Albert Sisto, chairman
and chief executive officer of Hifn. "Hifn's strong
experience in applied processors, cards and software that
deliver solutions for continuous data protection and capacity
optimization for the storage and networking markets together
with Exar's, will provide the expertise to offer highly
integrated system solutions with complete software support.
I also believe Hifn's acquisition by Exar creates unique
added value and is a great opportunity for our customers,
employees and shareholders."
With this acquisition Exar get the power of protecting
information. Hifn, started in 1996 is providing semiconductor,
board and software solution for OEM manufacturer of networking,
storage and security products.
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