Texas Instruments (TI) said it has been notified of an unsolicited "mini-tender offer" by TRC Capital Corporation to purchase up to 3,000,000 shares of TI’s common stock, representing approximately 0.23% of TI’s outstanding shares.

Apparently, TRC has made such mini-tender offers for a number of companies. The per-share price offered was below a stock’s market value at the time the offer was issued. In TI’s case, the offer price of $24.00 represented a 4% discount to the closing price of TI’s stock on July 23 ($25.02), the day prior to the date of the offer.

The SEC has issued an investor alert regarding these mini-tender offers, noting that in making the offers at below-market prices, bidders are "hoping that they will catch investors off guard if the investors do not compare the offer price to the current market price."