Another special purpose acquisition company has grabbed a semiconductor firm.

Ascend Acquisition Corp., which raised $38.5 million in an IPO in May, said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire ePak Resources Pte. Ltd., a maker of chip handling equipment for semiconductor makers.

SPACs, also known as "blank check" companies, are founded without an operating business. Once they go public, they have 18 months to complete a deal using about 80% of their net assets. SPACs that fail to make an acquisition are liquidated and the cash is returned to shareholders.

Ascend was pretty vague in its S-1, originally filed in February 2006, about what industry it aimed to pursue — the filing only said it might look at the "manufacturing, services or distribution" markets. With ePak, it gets an eight-year-old, profitable chip equipment maker, with $36.2 million in annual sales, that's been growing at a decent clip.

Ascend doesn't have the tech star power of Acquicor Technology Inc., a blank-check company led by Gil Amelio, the former CEO of Apple Computer and National Semiconductor Corp. Acquicor last year announced the $260 million acquisition of Jazz Semiconductor Inc., a specialty chip wafer maker.

Ascend CEO Don Rice co-founded RSTW Partners, which invests in the subordinated debt market. In the SPAC world, however, the company's special adviser is well-known. Arthur Spector is the guy who created the first blank-check company, Information Systems Acquisition Corp., in the 1990s. —Olaf de Senerpont Domis

See July 20 story from The Deal
See October 2006 story from The Deal

Tags: semiconductors