Infineon warned for the second time in a week- this time in words direct from its CEO and a board member – that the German tech firm’s $850 million purchase of Cree’s Wolfspeed semiconductor power business might be blocked by the U.S. government due to security concerns.
Reuters news service said that Chief Executive Officer Rheinhard Ploss of Infineon, a global semiconductor manufacturer, warned shareholders on Thursday that there is “a very significant risk that we will not be able to complete the takeover as planned or possibly even at all.”
Reuters also reported that management board member Helmut Gassels also told the meeting: “We are in discussions with Cree about what could work to address the issues of CFIUS. But we think that this will be very unlikely.”
Ploss and Gassels made the comments at an Infineon shareholders meeting in Munich, Germany.
Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) and Infineon issued a similar warning last week. However, Infineon had said there might be ways to push the deal to closing.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, has expressed security concerns about the sale, but those have not been specified. Hower, Reuters reports that Ploss told shareholders that CIUS had not suggested any possible ways to address concerns.
The deal was announced in February 2016.
Read more at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-4230684/Infineon-warns-Wolfspeed-deal-collapse-U-S-security-fears.html#ixzz4Yqg0wona
