Cypress Soars 68 Percent on Arbitrage; Once in a Lifetime Trade

Shucks. Like me, you may not have bought shares of chipmaker Cypress Semiconductor (CY) yesterday after it fell about 25 percent. Too bad if you didn’t, because the shares have soared over 68 percent today, up $2.13 at $5.23. It’s a bit complex if you haven’t tuned in for awhile, but hear me out.

Cypress bankrolled a solar power technology company called Sunpower (SPWR), and spun it out in 2005. Cypress for the last year traded mostly on the value of its Sunpower holdings. For most of that year the existing Cypress chip business was being valued at almost nothing. Then Cypress decided to spin out its Sunpower shares. Today was the official first day of Cypress trading, separate from its Sunpower interest.

Read the rest of this post