Scott Becker, Artisan’s chief technical officer, has this year sold more than a fifth of his stake in the silicon-chip technology firm, at prices between $19 and $24 a share. This is significantly less than the $33.89-a- share offer that ARM made for Artisan last Monday.
This news may exacerbate concerns that ARM, one of Britain’s most successful technology companies, is overpaying for its first big American acquisition. Those fears prompted an 18% collapse in ARM’s share price last week when the deal was announced.
Company directors are often seen as good judges of the value of their business. Many investors believe that if directors are selling, it is a poor time to buy.
Becker has the second- biggest stake in Artisan among the company’s directors. He founded the business with Mark Templeton, Artisan’s chief executive, in 1991.
Since January Becker has cut his stake from about 270,000 shares to just over 210,000, according to filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The most recent sale was completed days before the deal with ARM was announced.
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In Britain, it would be highly irregular for a director of a public company to buy or sell shares while its board was negotiating a takeover. However, a company spokeswoman said Becker’s sales were made under the terms of a programmed disposal mechanism that is permitted in America. The sales have been made steadily over the months, with 2,000 shares sold every few days.
The fall in the value of ARM’s shares has reduced the value of its offer to about $29.40. ARM is offering $9.60 in cash and 4.41 of its American-traded securities for each share in Artisan.
ARM, a spin-out from Acorn Computers in the 1990s, designs the “cores” of energy-efficient microprocessors. Artisan provides some of the basic circuitry needed for the design of advanced silicon chips.
Templeton said he was “astonished” at the fall in ARM’s share price, which he blamed on a lack of understanding of the semiconductor industry among British investors.