ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN) and California Micro Devices (Nasdaq: CAMD) has announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which ON Semiconductor will acquire California Micro Devices (CMD) through a cash tender offer of US$4.70 per share. With net cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of approximately US$45 million at the end of November 2009, the transaction value of CMD represents an enterprise value of approximately US$63 million and an equity value of approximately US$108 million, based on common stock outstanding and issued.  The proposed transaction and related merger agreement have been approved by each company’s board of directors.

“The acquisition of California Micro Devices will significantly strengthen our offering of application specific integrated passive (ASIP) devices to protect products in the wireless, computing and consumer electronics end-markets,” said Keith Jackson, ON Semiconductor president and CEO. “In addition, CMD’s expertise in protection solutions for the high brightness LED (HBLED) market, as well as their strengths in LC-based EMI (electromagnetic interference) filtering and low capacitance ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection, complement our existing portfolio of protection and lighting solutions. With technology and process development expertise in ESD and EMI protection, CMD is highly differentiated in the marketplace – as demonstrated by their strong relationships with leading global customers across multiple large and growing applications. Combined with ON Semiconductor's global sales channel footprint and effective channels of distribution, we expect to be able to support a broader and deeper penetration of CMD’s overall product portfolio with market-leading customers. This should enable us to accelerate revenue growth for CMD’s products and increase market share. We also believe CMD’s products and operations will benefit from ON Semiconductor’s world-class manufacturing capabilities.”

“California Micro Devices becoming a part of ON Semiconductor represents a compelling opportunity for our customers, employees and shareholders,” said Robert Dickinson, president and CEO of CMD. “To compete successfully in today’s global marketplace, size and scale are very important so we are pleased to become part of a leading global company in the semiconductor sector. Combining our leading-edge protection technology with ON Semiconductor’s world-class operational capabilities, supply chain and global customer and channel footprint will enable CMD’s products to better penetrate the mobile, consumer, laptop and lighting end-markets.”

Transaction Details
Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by both boards of directors, ON Semiconductor will commence a tender offer no later than December 29, 2009, to purchase all of the outstanding shares of CMD’s common stock for US$4.70 in cash. The closing of the tender offer is subject to customary conditions, including the tender of a number of shares that constitutes at least a majority of CMD’s outstanding shares of common stock on a fully diluted basis as further described in the merger agreement. The agreement also provides that the parties effect, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary conditions, a merger following the completion of the tender offer, which will result in all shares of CMD common stock not tendered in the tender offer being converted into the right to receive the same US$4.70 per share in cash paid in the tender offer. ON Semiconductor will finance the acquisition using existing cash resources and the closing of the transaction is not contingent on the receipt of financing. The companies expect the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2010.

Upon closing, ON Semiconductor may record a one-time charge for purchased in-process research and development expenses and other deal related costs. The amount of that charge, if any, has not yet been determined.

“This acquisition is directly aligned with both our strategic and financial goals,” said Donald Colvin, ON Semiconductor executive vice president and CFO. “The transaction value represents approximately 1.6 times trailing twelve month sales plus cash. We also believe ON Semiconductor’s operational strengths will significantly benefit the revenue and margin potential of CMD. Given the significant synergies we expect to realize from this combination, we anticipate that the acquisition will be accretive to earnings per share within the first year post the transaction close. We intend to provide further details on the acquisition and our fourth quarter 2009 results on our regularly scheduled quarterly earnings conference call in February 2010.”