Sunnyvale Firm Makes $8-Per-Share Bid : Newport Electronics Gets Buyout Offer

Newport Electronics, a digital measuring instruments maker with annual sales of about $16 million, said Thursday that it has received a $9-million cash buyout offer from Sensor Control Corp. in Sunnyvale--a company less than half its size.

Sensor’s $8-per-share bid represents a 73% premium over Newport’s current trading price and a 40% premium over its reported net worth of $6.4 million, or $5.62 a share.

News of the acquisition bid was released after the stock markets had closed. Neither company’s lightly traded stock changed price during the day.

Newport closed at $4.625 and Sensor closed at $2.50 a share, both in over-the-counter trading.

In the past year, Newport’s common stock has never sold for more than $5.50 a share and has traded for as low as $3.25. Sensor’s common stock high for the past 52 weeks was $4.75 a share and its low was $2.

Officials at Sensor and Newport could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

In a prepared statement, Newport said its board of directors is examining the Sensor proposal.

Newport, which has about 175 employees and does half of its annual sales volume overseas, reported $661,000 net profit and $15 million in sales in 1987. For the first 9 months of 1988, the company has earned $499,000 on sales of $13 million.

In August, the company received permission from the city of Santa Ana to issue a tax-exempt, $6.5-million industrial revenue bond to finance construction of a new research and development facility that would enable it to add about 120 new employees over the next 5 years.

Sensor, which manufactures electronic instruments, reported fiscal 1988 sales of $5 million and net income of $528,000. The company reported net worth of $6.3 million.