Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is advising Japan’s Murata Manufacturing Co. on its plan to purchase Nasdaq-listed Peregrine Semiconductor Corp.
Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian is advising Peregrine on the sale.
Murata Electronics North America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Murata, will acquire all existing shares of the U.S. radio frequency (RF) chipmaker not owned by Murata for $465 million.
The team from Simpson Thacher was led by M&A partners David Sneider and Daniel Clivner who are based in Tokyo and Los Angeles, respectively, Washington D.C. regulatory partner Peter Thomas, and compensation partner Tristan Brown and tax partner Katharine Moir, who are based in Palo Alto.
Murata, which is one of the world’s largest makers of ceramic capacitors, is one of Peregrine’s top customers, and uses the U.S. company for most of its RF switch requirements.
The deal would also give Murata Peregrine’s intellectual property rights on RF silicon on insulator (SOI) technology. SOI improves the performance of chips used in smartphones and other wireless devices.
Analysts say that rival chipmakers Qualcomm Inc, Intel Corp, Skyworks Solutions Inc, and Mediatek Inc, could still bid for Peregrine.
The transaction is subject to approval of Peregrine’s stockholders, and is expected to close by end of this year, or early 2015.
