Microsemi has made a proposal to the board of directors of Zarlink Semiconductor to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the Company for CAD $3.35 per share in cash. The proposed transaction has a total equity value of USD $548.7 million based on a fully diluted share count and represents a 40 percent premium to Zarlink's share price as of July 19, 2011, and a 43 percent premium to Zarlink's trailing 30 day average share price.

Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Zarlink designs mixed-signal semiconductor products for a range of communications and medical applications. Zarlink offers more than 900 active products, and ships approximately 100 million ICs per year to over 400 customers.