Altera shareholder challenges company over Intel

By Liana B. Baker (Reuters) - TIG Advisors LLC, an investment firm that holds shares in Altera Corp, challenged a nomination to the company's board of directors on Monday over Altera's refusal to engage with Intel Corp about a potential merger. TIG Advisors is the first shareholder to go on the record in a bid to put pressure on Altera. It urged Altera's shareholders in a letter on Monday to vote against the company's nomination for lead independent director, Michael Nevens, at its annual meeting of stockholders scheduled for May 11. Altera did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "Stockholders should have right to choose between Intel’s reported $54 (£35.4) cash offer and uncertain future of standalone Altera," TIG Advisors said in a letter to Altera and shareholders. The firm also said it has spoken to many of the "core institutional" shareholders in Altera who also believe $54 is a compelling offer for the company. Altera's earnings report April 23 also disappointed investors with lower-than-expected results. Investors deserve a strategic plan from Altera that can deliver value to shareholders and can compete with Intel's offer, TIG said. Altera appeals to Intel for its line of programmable chips, increasingly used in data centres and customised for functions such as providing web-search results or updating social networks, but talks have been off during the past few weeks. Altera shares were trading 33 cents lower, down by 0.8 percent on Monday at $40.57 per share. It had a market capitalisation of $12.27 billion on Monday, compared to Intel's market value of $153.86 billion. Worldwide semiconductor mergers and acquisitions were worth $31 billion last year, the most since 2011, Thomson Reuters data shows. In the 12 months through March 2, four hundred seventy-two chip M&A deals were made worldwide, up from 383 in the previous year. (Reporting by Liana B. Baker; Editing by Chris Reese)