<.. They should be made to PAY dearly for Amati. Amati's management sold out at too low a price and did not represent the best interests of their shareholders...>
Remember, it's EASY to armchair second guess the trenches. Amati was in a pretty serious financial bind that was short term helped by WSTL's $5MM. Personally, I think (as do others intimate with this industry) that they (TXN) paid too MUCH - but I guess they can afford it.
I haven't kept up today, but do they get the engineering talent as well? Do Cioffi et al stay on with Amati as a division of TI? If NOT, they REALLY overpaid.
I don't see anyone bidding higher than here. I'm guessing the intrinsic value is on the table... I don't see LU (say) uping from here. They can license and develop their own. You can buy a LOT of engineering for $400MM!
Otherwise, Amati would have gotten a little piece of licensing, but may have had a hard time selling to the Telcos, and in surviving until real roll-outs would have occured. With ALA at the door and telco delays inevitable, reality set in. The alternative COULD have been that WSTL/AMTX never got big deployment numbers... (had they been confident that they WOULD have, they likely wouldn't have sold.)
I think this deal is a PLUS for WSTL.
I have also heard that ADI might buy Aware, but they are already pretty close, so I don't know why.
My opinion, anyway.
Steve
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