Lattice to seek Trump approval of China-backed takeover

Lattice Semiconductor Corp will seek US President Donald Trump's approval for its proposed $1.3 billion sale to China-backed Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, Lattice said on Friday, gambling that Trump will approve the tie-up against the advice of US national security officials.

It will be the first such deal to hit Trump's desk and only the fourth time in three decades that a deal was put in front of a president after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) recommended against it. CFIUS scrutinizes deals for potential national security threats.

The move comes after Portland, Oregon-based Lattice and private equity fund Canyon Bridge, funded in part by China's central government, spent eight months trying unsuccessfully to persuade CFIUS to clear the acquisition.

If Trump approves the transaction, it would be unprecedented. US presidents, who have the final authority on such investments, have sided with the committee to block the past three deals. As a result, most companies have been reluctant to ask a president to go against the consensus of the country's national security establishment.

Critics of the deal, including some US lawmakers, worry the technology gained through the acquisition of Lattice could be used by China's military, but the companies have argued it poses no such risk.

"Lattice remains of the view that the proposed transaction does not raise any national security concerns that cannot be addressed by the comprehensive mitigation measures that Lattice and Canyon Bridge have proposed to implement," Lattice said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Canyon Bridge supports Lattice's decision and believes "President Trump will recognize the benefits this investment will provide - to keep and grow jobs in the US as well as expand Lattice's product portfolio," it said in an emailed statement.

The latest 75-day CFIUS review of the Lattice deal, the third since it was announced in November, ended this week with the panel informing Canyon Bridge and Lattice it would recommend that Trump block the acquisition if they take it to him for review.

Lattice makes programmable chips known as field programmable gate arrays, which allow companies to put their own software on silicon chips for different uses. It does not sell chips to the U.S. military, but its two biggest rivals, Xilinx Inc and Intel Corp's Altera, make chips used in military technology.

Canyon Bridge, based in Palo Alto, California, is a private equity fund whose major investor is China Reform Holdings Corp, an entity that invests money from China's central government and it has indirect links to the country's space program.

REUTERS