Microsemi to Issue 2.5 Million Shares of Common

Microsemi Corp. of Santa Ana said Friday that the semiconductor company and its major stockholder, Jacob M. Kaplan of New York, have filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed public offering of 2.5 million shares of common stock.

If the SEC approves the offering, the company will sell 1.5 million new shares, and Kaplan, his four trusts and his company, Jemkap Inc., will offer the remaining 1 million shares, according to the prospectus.

Kaplan has long owned or controlled about 3 million of the company’s 7.8 million shares, said Philip Frey Jr., president of Microsemi. At 94 and recovering from a broken hip, Kaplan is interested in a more liquid estate, Frey said.

Proceeds to the company will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes, including possible future acquisitions.

“There’s nothing immediately on the horizon,” Frey said. “We’ve been discussing the offering (with Kaplan) all along and the company was looking at some acquisitions earlier in the year and figured the time was right. So we combined forces.”

Paine Webber Inc., E.F. Hutton & Co. Inc., Fahnestock & Co. and Baker, Watts & Co. will manage the offering.

Microsemi makes and markets a broad line of high-performance semiconductor diodes used in a variety of military, industrial and commercial products.