Virage to acquire ARC International

The proposed transaction values ARC's shares at 16.25p – a total of £25.2million. The offer represents a premium of 38% to the closing price of ARC shares on July 28, the last business day before the offer period began, Virage said. Virage Logic's executive chairman, Dan McCranie, said: "ARC would significantly expand our market opportunity to include microprocessor cores, the largest segment of the semiconductor IP market." Dr Alex Shubat, president and ceo of Virage Logic, added: "In our engagements with well over 300 existing worldwide customers, we have seen the need to provide additional ip building blocks to enable successful and timely development of large SoC products. Our highly differentiated product portfolio comprising memory compilers, logic libraries, non-volatile memory, test and repair solutions, and high speed interfaces have set the standard for superior quality and value added features for a variety of end applications. By bringing ARC's talented team into our company, we will be complementing our existing technological and operational nucleus to provide even more comprehensive product solutions for our customers." Virage said it has already received irrevocable undertakings from ARC shareholders representing just over 50% of the company's outstanding share capital.