Bidding war for MIPS assets heats up

X-bit Labs reports the bidding war for MIPS' business is heating up as both Imagination Technologies and Ceva have increased their offers this week for the company's operating business. The MIPS board of directors announced that it unanimously determined that the new proposal from Ceva is a superior proposal to the merger agreement with Imagination Technologies, but said it's prepared to continue negotiations of Imagination increases its bid.

ImgTec, a graphics and multimedia processing technologies licensor, this week raised its bid for MIPS operating business to $80 million, up from $60 million original offering. Ceva, a leading licensor of silicon intellectual property (SIP) platform solutions and DSP, also announced this week that it submitted a further proposal to acquire the operating business of MIPS for $90 million plus the payment on MIPS' behalf of the termination fee to Imagination Technologies pursuant to MIPS' existing merger agreement, as amended, with Imagination.

The patents of MIPS aren't part of this deal, they were recently sold to Bridge Crossing for $350.