Microchip to Acquire Supertex, Shares Rally

In a press release on Monday morning,

announced the acquisition of

. Shares of Microchip are up almost 40% in pre-market trading. Microchip will acquire Supertex for $33.00 per share, or a total equity value of $394 million. This represents a total enterprise value of $246 million when excluding Supertec's cash and investments of $148 million. The acquisition was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies and will tentatively close in the second quarter of 2014. Henry Pao, President and CEO of Supertex, commented “We are pleased to join Microchip Technology, a premier company in the semiconductor industry. Microchip has demonstrated consistent profitability, technology leadership and growth in its core businesses. We believe that this acquisition provides the best vehicle for us to realize significant value for Supertex's shareholders, as well as the opportunity to scale up to the much stronger sales and manufacturing platforms of Microchip.” Shares of Microchip closed at $44.44 on Friday and are currently trading up 0.16%. Supertex closed at $24.38 on Friday and are up 35.23% minutes after the opening bell.