Atmel Corporation (NDAQ:ATML) shares rose 1.19% in early trading after George Perlegos announced the filing of a definitive proxy statement with the SEC in connection with his planned solicitation of proxies at the company's next annual shareholders meeting on May 18th. The founder and former president, CEO, and chairman of the company hopes to replace the company's current board with his own nominees and appoint an additional three candidates that he feels are highly qualified.

If successful, the 5.2% holder proposed several initiatives designed to unlock shareholder value:

• Promptly hiring a new, highly qualified and experienced CEO to replace the current underperforming one who had only 10 weeks of public company CEO experience before joining the company!
  
• Spinning-off Atmel's Smart Card business to its shareholders in order to convert the company to a microcontroller pure-play and deliver value to shareholders. We know that spin-offs tend to outperform the overall market in their first year!
  
• Selling Atmel's automotive business in Germany, which Mr. Perlegos believes can be sold for $400 to $500 million - a far better option than the current proposal to sell the company's wafer business in Germany.
  
• Divesting non-core assets, such as the company's NOR-flash business. This furthers the company's move to become a microcontroller pure-play and provides it with the cash to fund a share repurchase.
  
• Initiating a $500 million to $1 billion share repurchase program designed to boost the company's share price and unlock value for shareholders.
  
• Removing the current poison pill in accordance with the highest standards of corporate governance.

Clearly all of these proposed initiatives would be greatly beneficial to shareholders. The company's stock has already dropped close to 20% since the beginning of 2007 after the company announced further sequential decline in revenue of up to 8% for the first quarter. Obviously changes are needed and perhaps George Perlegos is the one to bring them; after all, he did successfully create and run the company for nearly 20 years! Combined, these factors make ATML a stock worth watching...

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