UPDATE: Canaccord Genuity Downgrades Spreadtrum Communications Following Tsinghua Unigroup Merger Announcement

In a report published Friday, Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley downgraded Spreadtrum Communications (NASDAQ: SPRD) from Buy to Hold, but raised the price target from $29.00 to $31.00.

In the report, Canaccord Genuity noted, “Spreadtrum and Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. today jointly announced a definitive merger agreement under which Tsinghua Unigroup will acquire all outstanding ordinary shares of Spreadtrum for $31 per ADR. The acquisition price of $31 is 9% higher than the previous acquisition offer price of $28.50/ADR and values the company at $1.78B on a fully diluted basis. With an expanding product portfolio combined with accelerating low-end smartphone growth in emerging markets, we believe Spreadtrum should post strong sales growth through 2014 despite increased TD-SCDMA competition and a secular decline in the global feature phone market. We increase our price target to the acquisition price of $31 from $29 but downgrade to HOLD from Buy given we believe this transaction will be completed post required approvals.”

Spreadtrum Communications closed on Thursday at $26.45.