The mystery suitor for GCA Corp, Andover, Massachusetts (CI No 881) turns out to be General Signal Corp, Stamford, Connecticut, which has a wafer stepper manufacturing business of its own: General Signal has made an agreed bid of $5.22 a share, $49.6m in total, against a price in the market of $4.25 before the announcement – and will also buy GCA’s $24m of outstanding notes, some at a premium, to bring the total price to between $70m and $80m; the combination, which will bring new generation wafer steppers for finer chip geometries to General Signal, will create the world’s largest maker of wafer steppers.
Content from our partners
