Murata To Buy Peregrine Semiconductor For $465 Mln.

(RTTNews) - Japan-based Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has agreed to buy Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. (PSMI) for $465 million, as mergers and acquisitions in the semiconductor chip industry continues to flourish. Following the news, shares of Peregrine surged 61 percent, trading just below the offer price.

Murata Electronics North America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Murata Manufacturing, will buy radio frequency semiconductor products maker Peregrine Semiconductor for $12.50 a share in cash for all the shares it does not own. The total transaction value comes in at $471 million, or $465 million excluding Murata's existing holding.

"This acquisition will combine Murata's world-leading mobile RF module capabilities with Peregrine's best-in-class RF front-end products," said Norio Nakajima, EVP, Director of Communication Business Unit of Murata. "This transaction will deepen our existing partnership and position us to meet the expanding opportunities in this field."

Upon closing of the deal, San Diego, California-based Peregrine will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Murata and continue with its current business model of solving the world's toughest RF challenges. The acquisition, which has been approved by both companies' boards, is expected to close by the end of 2014 or early 2015, subject to customary approvals.

On Wednesday, German chip maker Infineon Technologies AG (IFNNY) agreed to buy semiconductor maker International Rectifier Corp. (IRF) for about $3 billion in cash.

Earlier this month, Intel Corp. (INTC) also announced a deal to buy LSI's Axxia Networking Business from Avago Technologies Ltd (AVGO) for $650 million in cash, to boost its presence in the networking chip market. Early this year, RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD) agreed to merge with TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. (TQNT) in an all-stock transaction.

According to reports, the North American semiconductor industry has recorded over $11 billion worth of merger deals in just the first-half of this year.

PSMI is currently trading at $12.38, up $4.69 or 60.99%, on a volume of 6.3 million shares, far above the three-month average volume, on the Nasdaq.