The typically civilized dance floor for mergers and acquisitions is looking like a mosh pit. Recent deal activity shows no signs of the usual orderly courting between companies.

Just this month three Growth Stock Strategist portfolio companies have been involved in varying degrees of acquisition chaos. Integrated Device Technology, Alliance Fiber Optic Products and Lattice Semiconductor have all been subject to a veritable smorgasbord of merger news.

A Fake Bid

Integrated Device Technology, a buy-rated stock with a $45 target, found itself in a whirlwind of trading activity on April 12 when its stock rose as much as 25% due to the disclosure of a purchase letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Chinese group of investors, who claimed to already own slightly less than 5% of the company’s shares, filed a letter on the SEC website offering to purchase the company for $32. The letter coyly noted that it would extend a 45-day “go-shop” period in case the company wanted to find a higher bid.

The company quickly issued a statement knocking out any chance this was an authentic bid. CEO Greg Waters noted that the SEC notices “represent the first and only information IDT has received from this group, and we have not had any communication whatsoever with any of these parties. At this time we are unaware of any other information that would support a determination that the group’s proposal represents a credible bona fide offer to purchase the company.”

The hoax is similar to the fraudulent bid put up on Avon’s stock last year. The SEC attributed that bid to a Bulgarian man who owned shares of Avon and attempted to profit by manipulating its price.

While it’s possible that a real bid will come along for Integrated, we like the stock on its own merits. Its acquisition of Germany’s ZMDI positions Integrated perfectly to supply chips for today’s high-tech cars. Lower-than-expected revenue guidance for the company’s high-performance data products sent the stock to bargain levels just before we recommended it.

A Real Bid

A bona fide purchase offer was made for Alliance Fiber Optic Products on April 8. Alliance is part of the legacy Roadrunner Portfolio. Corning, a giant public optics company, will pay $18.50 a share in cash for Alliance.

Alliance, which makes hardware used in high-speed networks, hit several air pockets over the past six months. A drop in orders from its largest customer, widely known to be Google, caused a shortfall in profits for the third and fourth quarter of last year.

The merger looks like a perfect fit, as Alliance’s optical hardware will dovetail nicely with Corning’s portfolio of optical communications products.

We don’t expect a competing bid and recommend that subscribers sell their Alliance shares into this news.

A Possible Future Bid

Lattice Semiconductor jumped 18% on April 13 after Chinese firm Tsinghua disclosed that it had acquired a 6.1% stake in the company. Tsinghua paid an average $5.75 per share, the same price the stock hovers around right now.

Although Tsinghau’s investment in the company is by no means a promise of a future bid, the state-backed Chinese tech giant has publically declared its intention to morph into a chip behemoth and has made two previous proposals for U.S.-based companies.

Last November its chairman announced approval for Tsinghua to spend $47 billion over the next five years to cement the company as a global chip powerhouse. An informal $23 billion bid for Micron last August was quickly dismissed on the grounds that it would not pass national security tests. A Western Digital investment was scrapped for the same reasons.

If size is a consideration, a Lattice purchase would pass government inspection more easily due to the company’s relatively small $757 million market cap.

But Lattice may prefer to remain independent. The company’s WiGig technology is just coming to fruition. While the technology has been available for some time, products that can use its super-fast speeds are just becoming available.

SAR Insights, a technology consulting firm, just released a report entitled “The Time is Right for WiGig.” It notes that equipment vendors like Acer, Dell, LeTV, Lenovo and TP Link are just beginning to release WiGig-enabled hardware. It expects 2.5 billion WiGig-enabled devices to ship by 2020, with rapid growth beginning this year. The firm bullishly proclaims that 2016 will be “the year of WiGig.”