Another day, another offer for a U.S. chip firm from a group of Chinese investors. Except that this one is a bit of a head scratcher.

On Tuesday (April 12), group of what appear to be mostly Chinese individuals filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) offering to buy Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDT) for $32 in cash. The group, identified as Libin Sun, Liang Xu, Haiping Zhou, Zhibin Lin, Junping Chen, Libin Yang and Nauman Aly claim to own or have options on roughly 4.9% of IDT’s outstanding shares.

Now for the mystery: nobody has ever heard of this group, nor have they apparently ever filed before with the SEC. And IDT’s stock closed at $15.34 Tuesday, before increasing significantly after the filing.

IDT (San Jose, Calif.) issued a statement Tuesday confirming the filings, but saying that this is the first that the company has heard of the group or the offer.

”These SEC filings represent the first and only information IDT has received from this group, and we have not had any communication whatsoever with any of these parties,” said Greg Waters IDT’s president and CEO. “At this time we are unaware of any other information that would support a determination that the group’s proposal represents a credible bona fide offer to purchase the company. IDT will evaluate any further information that may be received from the group to determine whether a genuine and credible offer exists.”

In recent months, several consortia of Chinese investment firms have waded into the waters of bidding for U.S. technology companies, particularly semiconductor companies, in support of China’s initiative to build a domestic supply chain. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CIFUS, has signaled hesitancy in allowing U.S. semiconductor technology to be acquired by China’s state-backed firms, citing national security concerns.

By: DocMemory
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