The Gear Live report on a possible Freescale buyout has just been confirmed. Freescale Semiconductor Inc., designer and manufacturer of embedded processors and peripherals, will be purchased by a consortium of private investment groups led by The Blackstone Group, and including The Carlyle Group, Permira Funds and Texas Pacific Group. At a $17.6 Million bottom line, this merger more than triples the value of the AMD-ATI merger that has been such huge corporate news thus far this year. The terms of the merger are a purchase price of $40 per share in cash, representing a premium of approximately 36% over Freescale’s average closing share price during the 30 trading days through September 8th, 2006. 

Much like the AMD-ATI merger, the merger was approved unanimously by the board of directors, but still awaits shareholder and U.S. antitrust approvals. Freescale also has the option to shop around for a better offer from another party, but I’m guessing a 36% margin is going to be hard to beat.