Marc, It's hard to find out much about TPG because
they are not a public company or fund. They
operate more like a hedge fund and their
members include institutions and very wealthy
individuals. According to the source and date
of a document, they have a war chest of between
2.5 and 4 billion bucks. TPG's stated goal is to
takeover troubled companies and have taken
over about a dozen, of which the best known to me is
Del Monte of supermarket fame. I do not know
who they have used as investment bankers in
the past, but for Zilog I believe they are using
Lehman
I have a friend who is a retired CPA, and through him
a former associate who is a CPA/broker, take a
quick look at the deal with Zilog. They don't
think Zilog's balance sheets looks particularly
wonderful -- no hidden assets, cash, etc. However,
Scrapps on the Zilog thread I believe put
his finger on why this deal is being made --
they want Zilog's ability and long experience in
making specialized integrated circuits to fit with
other tech companies they already acquired.
In particular, Scrapps thinks they want to make
ADSL modems, a way of getting high speed data
transmission on local telephone lines, because
of some aquisitions they made from Lucent.
I'm not certain about ADSL, but the fit argument
makes sense to me.
After teetering back and forth, I now think the deal
will go through. However, my mind will be changed
if the stock goes down after they formally report
earnings. Although I think TPG/ZLG and their
bigwigs are locked out, I think lower level employees
at Zilog/friends may be able to trade after earnings.
With the current low volume, the price should point
in the direction which people within Zilog expect
the deal to go. |
