Infineon said in a statement it planned to acquire Horten-based SensoNor "with the aim of significantly strengthening our position in semiconductor sensors for the automotive business."

SensoNor was scheduled to hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on Tuesday after which Infineon would submit its takeover offer.

Infineon said that as part of the offer it wanted to bid to purchase 138.5 million SensoNor shares from institutional and private investors at a price of two kroner per share.

"This corresponds to an investment of around 35 million euros," the German company said.

In addition, SensoNor would then issue 100 million new shares that Infineon would buy at a price of one kroner per share, or 13 million euros in all.

Infineon insisted the takeover was a friendly move that would make it the market leader in tyre pressure sensors.

"This planned takeover means were consequently pursuing our strategy of further strengthening our already leading position in the automotive sector, and were aiming to double our market share in automotive semiconductor sensors to 15 percent," said the head of Infineons automotive and industrial electronics division, Reinhard Ploss.

"Were Europes biggest manufacturer of semiconductor solutions for automotive electronics and the worlds second biggest. Acquisition will allow us to significantly boost our existing pressure sensor business; well also be able to ideally enlarge our product portfolio for semiconductor sensors to include acceleration sensors," he said.

SPACE.WIRE