It's common to criticize the guys who start chip companies as cowboys who'll draw at anyone who suggests its time to merge with a rival. It's believed to be one of the reasons why Micrel Corp. [MCRL] has resisted overtures from activist shareholder Obrem Capital Management LLC (and others) to sell itself.

The company's co-founder, chairman and CEO Raymond Zinn (pictured), is apparently uninterested in doing deals, despite the challenges facing his analog chip company.

Judging by his actions in the past several months, Zinn is at least putting his money where his mouth is. According to a filing Tuesday, Zinn on Jan. 25 started a run of purchases of Micrel stock that by March 4 had totaled 242,500 shares. Already a major shareholder, at Monday's closing price the newly purchased shares were worth $2.2 million. It was a pretty good call -- Micrel's shares on Jan. 24 had dipped to a six-month low of $5.57, and have since slowly clawed their way back into the low-$9 range.

The Tuesday filing is a preliminary proxy for the special shareholder meeting to take place May 20. It was called in response to a six-person slate to replace Micrel's current board pushed by Obrem, which owns roughly 15% of the company. The move is vehemently opposed by Micrel, which has put its objections on a new website, www.votemicrel.com. -- Olaf de Senerpont Domis 

See April 15 preliminary proxy on Micrel's special board meeting from SEC.gov 
See April 9 post from Tech Confidential