Jock, hard to believe ;-), but yet another positive article on LSI-Symbios, from EE Times this time:
eet.com
How LSI Logic snapped up
Symbios
By Loring Wirbel
with additional reporting by George Leopold
MILPITAS, Calif. - LSI Logic Corp. wasted no
time moving in on Symbios Inc. (Fort Collins,
Colo.), after Adaptec Inc. dropped its acquisition
efforts on June 25. This past weekend, LSI
assembled a $760 million cash offer for Symbios,
which was accepted on Sunday evening by Symbios'
parent, Hyundai Electronics America Inc., and
announced early Monday.
LSI was one of the most aggressive alternative
suitors for the Symbios assets in December 1997,
and in some senses, its business is even more
complementary to Symbios' offerings than Adaptec's.
Symbios had put together a strong portfolio of
cell-based cores and EDA design tools when it was
known as NCR Microelectronics, and its
storage-controller products augment LSI's own
offerings in network controllers and Fibre Channel
host adapters.
Though LSI appeared to move on Symbios with
unusual speed, the company had actually completed
all due diligence on the deal in January of this year,
an LSI Logic spokesman said. At that time, LSI
executives had traveled to Colorado to meet
Symbios officials and tour the Colorado Springs fab.
By the time Adaptec announced its acquisition of
Symbios in February, LSI had already completed all
of its groundwork, the LSI spokesman said.
When Adaptec dropped its offer June 25, LSI and
Hyundai officials met around the clock to work out
an alternate deal. The Hyundai board approved a
sale to LSI on Saturday evening, the LSI's board
approved the move on Sunday morning. A final deal
was signed at 7:30 p.m. PDT on Sunday, June 28.
On June 25, Adaptec chairman Grant Saviers said
that the FTC staff had objected to his company's
planned merger with Symbios because it
misinterpreted the possible monopoly that would
have been created by the combined
Adaptec-Symbios. Specifically, the FTC looked at
SCSI in isolation of other I/O standards, he said. In
the emerging worlds of Fibre Channel and USB, for
example, Adaptec and Symbios do not hold the
dominant position they hold in SCSI.
Ironically, LSI and Symbios may be able to
assemble more comprehensive coverage of high-end
storage control, due to LSI's early participation in
Fibre Channel markets. But unlike Adaptec and
Symbios, LSI does not participate in both chip- and
board-level storage control markets, which should
help ease future FTC concerns. The LSI spokesman
said that the company was fairly optimistic that there
would be no concerns from the FTC.
Participants in the FTC's deliberations on Adaptec's
failed acquisition of Symbios said LSI had not
played any role in blocking the deal. "There were a
number of interested parties who presented
information to the agency," said an attorney
representing one of those parties, but not LSI. "The
FTC most heavily weighed information from
customers."
Aside from LSI, the source said at least one group of
investment bankers was also looking to acquire
Symbios.
LSI's offer is slightly less than Adaptec's $775
million offer, and includes the assumption of all
Symbios liabilities. LSI plans to take a charge of
undetermined size in the current fiscal year to
account for the acquisition. In addition to the Fort
Collins, Colo. headquarters of Symbios -- which is
the site of the company's ASIC design groups and of
an older fab line -- LSI will gain a modern 8-inch
0.35-micron CMOS fab in Colorado Springs, as
well as groups in Kansas responsible for
system-level storage controller design.
LSI chairman Wilf Corrigan will visit Colorado and
Kansas in the next few weeks to meet with Symbios
employees and explain LSI's business plans. The
company will not know for the next few weeks
whether any Symbios employees will be laid off
following the acquisition, or how central the
Colorado Springs fab will be to LSI's overall
strategy. |
