OmniVision to Be Bought by Chinese Investors in $1.9 Billion Deal

OmniVision Technologies, a maker of chips for smartphone and tablet cameras, has agreed to be taken private by a group of Chinese investors for about $1.9 billion in cash.

Chinese private equity firms Hua Capital Management, CITIC Capital Holdings and GoldStone Investment will pay $29.75 per share for the company, a premium of 12 percent to the stock’s Wednesday close on the Nasdaq.

The company’s shares have risen about 36 percent in the past year.

Chinese state-owned investment firms bought several U.S.-listed chip makers in the last two years, including Montage Technology Group, Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics.

OmniVision, whose customers include Apple, competes with companies such as Sony, Samsung and Himax Technologies.

The company has a design center and a testing facility in China and generates nearly 80 percent of its revenue from the country.

OmniVision Chief Executive Shaw Hong is expected to remain with the company after the closing of the deal, expected in the third or fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Devika Krishna Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.