NORTH READING, Mass. (AP) — Teradyne Inc., a maker of products to test computer chips, said Wednesday it agreed to buy Nextest Systems Corp. for $379 million, expanding its product line into the flash memory chip sector.
Teradyne agreed to pay $20 per share in cash for Nextest, which had 18.9 million shares outstanding at the end of September. The per-share price represents a premium of about 67 percent over Nextest's closing price Tuesday of $11.99.
Nextest, which makes test products for flash memory chips, had $95.8 million in revenue in 2006.
Teradyne expects the move to reduce earnings in 2008. It expects the deal to close in the first quarter, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.
