Talks between US data center chipmaker Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) and Israeli big data connectivity chipmaker Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:MLNX) broke down last week, "Haaretz" reports.
Sources told the Israeli newspaper that representatives of investment bank Barclays were in Israel at the end of last week, hoping to close a deal on Xilinx's behalf, but Mellanox founder and CEO Eyal Waldman pushed the asking price for the company up to $6.7 billion, a 25% premium on the current share price of $100.75, giving a market cap of $5.4 billion for the Yokneam based company.
Intel, Microsoft, Broadcom and Xilinx have all been linked with an acquisition of Mellanox and a bidding war seems to be developing. This together with the strong financial results that Mellanox recently reported and strong guidance for 2019 are pushing up the Israeli company's share price, and thus its potential purchase price. Until recently the asking price for Mellanox was between $5.5 billion and $6 billion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 13, 2019
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