Navitas Semiconductor Agrees to Live Oak SPAC Merger

(Bloomberg) -- Navitas Semiconductor, a maker of power chips, has agreed to go public through a merger with Live Oak Acquisition Corp. II, a blank-check firm, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The transaction, which could be announced as soon as this week, is set to value the combined entity at about $1 billion, said the person. That includes a so-called private investment in public equity, or PIPE, of about $145 million, the person said.

A Live Oak representative declined to comment. A Navitas representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Live Oak raised $253 million in a December initial public offering. The SPAC is led by CEO Richard J. Hendrix.

El Segundo, California-based Navitas, led by CEO Gene Sheridan, works with customers including Lenovo Group Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Dell Technologies Inc. and Xiaomi Corp., its website shows. Its technology is used in mobile chargers, flat-screen televisions and data centers. Navitas specializes in gallium nitride, or GaN, semiconductor technology which it says runs up to 20 times faster than silicon, enabling more power and speedier charging.

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