News Alert from Dow Jones Online News via Quote.com
Topic: Mentor Graphics Corp
Quote.com News Item #3821266
Headline: Spinoff Rumor Sends Mentor Graphics Shares Higher
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NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Shares of Mentor Graphics Corp. rose Wednesday
for a second-consecutive session on speculation that the company will
soon spin off its Exemplar Logic unit, market sources said.
Mentor, based in Wilsonville, Ore., makes computer-aided engineering
systems. Exemplar provides synthesis tools for so-called field
programmable gate arrays.
Jensen Securities analyst Thomas Carley said someone either knows or
thinks the Mentor (MENT) spinoff will happen sooner than expected. With
"excellent product lines and continued performance," Exemplar is a good
candidate, he said.
Dan Nelson of Ragen MacKenzie agreed that it has been rumored that
several units at the company will be spun off. However, he attributed
the recent movement instead to a swing in investor interest toward
small- and mid-cap stocks and away from big-cap technology stocks.
In late trading Wednesday, shares of Mentor Graphics were up $1.063,
or 9.6%, at $12.125 on Nasdaq volume of 1.8 million shares. Average
daily volume is about 635,000. The shares traded as high as $13.125
Wednesday, not far from the 52-week high of $14 set Tuesday, when the
stock rose 5.4% for the session.
While a company spokesman said he couldn't comment on the
speculation, he did say the units are set up "independently from each
other to provide the best products." He also said the company is always
reviewing possibilities to boost shareholder value.
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