Investor Herbert Chen, the largest shareholder of TranSwitch, sent a letter to Chairman Alfred F. Boschulte, requesting reconstitution of the board with at least four of the current seven seats to be filled by shareholder nominees. Chen said he has lost confidence in the board to steward the semiconductor-device company and make the hard decisions that will create value for shareholders. Chen holds 19.76 million shares (14.9% of the total outstanding).

Hedge fund S.A.C. Capital said that Celgene's (CELG) $72-a-share offer for Pharmion wouldn't "fairly compensate" shareholders, and said the drug maker could be worth $80 to $100 a share. S.A.C. Capital said Pharmion's drug, Vidaza, which is used to treat patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, or bone-marrow diseases, could capture $100 million to $250 million more in sales than current projections, if a competitor's drug has worse survival data. S.A.C. Capital, run by billionaire investor Steve Cohen, holds 3,109,168 shares (8.3%).

Cypress Semiconductor (CY) recently contacted Simtek to explore a potential acquisition of the chip designer. Cypress said that the talks could result in a transaction in which it would obtain control of Simtek through a merger, an acquisition of stock, or in the purchase of a division of the company. Cypress originally purchased its stake in Simtek as part of a joint product-development relationship between the two parties. Cypress now has 3,179,644 shares (19.3%).

arl Icahn notified Motorola that he is nominating four persons for election as directors at the 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. Icahn also stated that he is pleased to see that Motorola is exploring his suggestion to separate mobile devices from Motorola's other business, and believes Motorola is now moving in the right direction but still has a long way to go.

Empire Capital Partners urged the messaging-security provider to hire an investment-banking firm to explore strategic alternatives to maximize stockholder value. Hamilton-Madison Group, an adviser to Empire Capital, recently urged Tumbleweed's board to enact a business plan that will complete the transition to a channel-sales strategy by the end of the second quarter and immediately reduce operating expenses in all areas to generate operating profits and cash. Empire Capital and its affiliates have 6,613,894 shares (12.9%).

Provident Energy Trust (PVX) is evaluating various strategic alternatives for its investments, including the sale of some or all of its stake in the oil and gas partnership. Provident is evaluating its options as a result of changes in Canadian tax laws and business considerations. It also said the various strategic alternatives could include "an extraordinary corporate transaction." Provident owns 14.4 million shares (21.5%).

Farallon Capital Management and its affiliates reported ownership of 6,437,500 shares (5.2%), after buying 2,053,900 from Dec. 6 to Jan. 9 at $52.08 to $62.24 each.

Hedge fund Highland Capital Management raised its stake to 1.6 million shares (7.8%), from the 1.2 million (5.8%) reported in March 2007.