Chartered shareholders accept ATIC acquisition offer

Chartered Semiconductor shareholders have accepted an acquisition offer by Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC), the company said Wednesday.

In September, ATIC offered to acquire Chartered, which is based in Singapore, in a deal worth S$5.6 billion (US$4 billion). At a meeting today, 83 percent of shareholders voted to approve the deal, Chartered said.

The approval of Chartered's shareholders is an important step forward for the deal, which must still be approved by Singapore's High Court and secure other approvals before it can be completed. ATIC expects the deal to be completed before the end of this year.

Once the deal is completed, ATIC will be the sole owner of Chartered. The company is also an investor in GlobalFoundries, the former manufacturing arm of Advanced Micro Devices, and it's widely expected that the two chip makers -- which share common manufacturing technologies -- will be combined into a single entity.