Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Synaptics (SYNA +1.19%) rose more than 30% early Wednesday after the company announced the acquisition of Japan-based Renesas SP Drivers. In a separate press release, Synaptics also raised its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue outlook.
So what: Based on today's exchange rates, Synaptics will pay approximately $475 million to acquire all outstanding equity of Renesas SP Drivers, which is currently the sole supplier to Apple for iPhone display driver chips. Synaptics expects the acquisition will not only increase its addressible market opportunity by 1.5 times, but also "accelerate its product roadmap for touch-and-display driver integration." Excluding transaction expenses, the purchase will also be immediately accretive to Synaptics' adjusted earnings per share.
Synaptics also stated Renesas SP Drivers has an estimated $515 million enterprise value, and that the purchase price was calculated based on customary adjustments including cash, net working capital, net debt, and third-party expenses. For the year ended March 2014, Renesas SP Drivers had revenue and cash flow of $650 million and $100 million, respectively. In any case, at first glance, with a purchase price of just 0.73 times trailing 12-month sales, Synaptics looks like it scored a great deal.
Finally, Synaptics now expects fiscal-fourth quarter 2014 revenue in the range of $300 million to $310 million, compared to its previous guidance of $275 million to $295 million. Analysts, on average, were modeling Q4 sales of just $289.23 million.
Now what: Today's news isn't a complete surprise, as Synaptics shares also popped 11% exactly two weeks ago following reports it was in talks regarding this very acquisition. To the market's credit, however, it is encouraging that Synaptics was able to wrangle 100% of Renesas SP Drivers' equity, as previous reports had only suggested talks for a 55% stake from Renesas SP Drivers' parent company, Renesas Electronics. The remaining 45% was collectively owned by Japan's Sharp and Taiwan's Powerchip, so Synaptics must have brought them to the table, as well.
In any case, with shares currently trading around 18 times next year's estimated earnings -- and keeping in mind those estimates are likely to increase -- I can't blame the market for driving shares of Synaptics up today.
