News

Bel Fuse Acquires 5.2 Percent of Artesyn's Common Stock

September 15, 2004 by Jeff Shepard

Bel Fuse Inc. (Jersey City, NJ) announced that it has filed a Schedule 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing its acquisition of 2,037,500 shares, or approximately 5.2% of the outstanding common stock, of Artesyn Technologies Inc. (Boca Raton, FL), a leader in power conversion solutions for the communications industry. The shares were acquired in open-market transactions through September 1, 2004, at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $16,350,000.

Artesyn acknowledged Bel Fuse's announcement that it has made an unsolicited proposal to acquire each share of Artesyn common stock for 0.265 of a share of Bel Fuse Class B non-voting common stock (an offer to swap slightly more than a quarter share of Bel Fuse stock for every share of Artesyn stock). Artesyn's board of directors has hired a number of "blue-chip advisers" to study the Bel Fuse proposal to determine the appropriate course that will serve the best interests of Artesyn, its shareholders and other important constituencies, and is expected to make a decision by the end of September.

"I'm not sure that investors think it's a good idea. What they are waiting for is Artesyn's board to take a position on the proposal," stated Artesyn Chief Executive Officer Joe O'Donnell.

"This combination of companies would clearly emerge as one of the world's leading electromechanical vendors," stated Bel Fuse Chief Executive Officer Daniel Bernstein in a letter to O'Donnell. "We'll compare their offer to what we feel are appropriate valuations in the market and make a determination on what will be the best value for stockholders."

Stock in Artesyn Technologies has jumped by more than 20% (from $1.69 to $9.87 a share) after the company disclosed that it is the target of a $520 million surprise acquisition bid. Bel Fuse shares fell by $0.80 a share to $31.29 following the announcement.