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Japan's Renesas Denies Report of Talks to Buy Chipmaker Maxim

Maxim Shares Surge on Report It's in Deal Talks With Renesas

(Bloomberg) -- Japan’s Renesas Electronics Corp. denied a report that it’s in talks to acquire Maxim Integrated Products Inc., throwing cold water on a report that said the deal could be worth as much as $20 billion.

Maxim shares, which had surged as much as 27 percent on Monday in New York, fell about 8 percent in extended trading. Renesas shares, which climbed as much as 3.7 percent shortly after the Tokyo open, gave up most gains and were higher by less than 1 percent as of 9:31 a.m.

CNBC reported earlier Monday that the U.S. chipmaker was in discussions to be acquired by Renesas, which has a market value of 2.16 trillion yen ($19.8 billion). CNBC said a deal isn’t imminent and may not happen. Renesas was formed in 2010 through the merger of money-losing chipmakers NEC and Renesas Technology Corp., a venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric.

“There were reports of merger discussions today, but that was not announced by us and isn’t factually true,” Renesas said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Ferda Millan, a spokeswoman for Maxim, said the company doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation.

To contact the reporters on this story: Reed Stevenson in Tokyo at rstevenson15@bloomberg.net, Jillian Ward in San Francisco at jward56@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Peter Elstrom

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