Ramtron say 'Thanks, but no thanks'

Ramtron's Board of Directors has authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives in the best interests of its stockholders. The Board intends to consider the full range of available options including, but not limited to, the potential sale of the Company or continuing with the Company’s current growth plans. Cypress has been invited to participate in this process. “Under Eric Balzer’s leadership, Ramtron is a transformed company that is now poised to fully exploit the vast untapped opportunity for F-RAM-based low energy and high data integrity solutions in the semiconductor market. Over the past 18 months, he has assembled a world-class management team, successfully completed the foundry transition, resolved product supply shortages and implemented processes aimed at accelerating global adoption of F-RAM and enlarging the size of the Company’s addressable market,” said Dr. William G. Howard, Ramtron’s Chairman. “As a result, the Ramtron Board of Directors believes that Cypress’ unsolicited proposal fails to reflect the Company’s strengthened competitive position, F-RAM intellectual property and deep know-how, and strong prospects for long-term growth, as well as the progress being made toward expanding the Company’s product portfolio beyond specialty memory products to also include integrated semiconductor solutions,” concluded Dr. Howard.