Intel could launch another run at takeover target Altera after a “standstill agreement” expires on 1 June, according to Reuters.

An agreement was put in place between the two companies when they previously engaged in talks, which subsequently came to nothing. This would explain, the report said, why Intel has made no further moves in the meantime.

It is not clear if Intel intends to take its proposal directly to shareholders, or whether it would work with Altera to try and get board-level support for such a combination.

Talks between Intel and Altera apparently ended early in April 2015, after the target turned down an offer at a 50 per cent premium on its share price before talks were revealed.

This sparked some surprise, not least because Altera would need to provide shareholders with evidence it had a plan to create more value than the Intel offer.

Reuters said that Intel had initially been mulling a $58 per share offer, which was reduced to $54 per share after “combing through non-public information”.

Last week, Altera announced an 18.6 per cent drop in profit to $94.9 million for the quarter to 27 March 2015, on revenue which fell 5.6 per cent to $435.5 million.

John Danne, CEO, said: “While we anticipated a weak start to the year, the first quarter was more challenging than expected.”

It is also expecting a sequential drop in revenue in the current quarter. In a conference call, it said it expects its telecom and wireless business, “and particularly our wireless business globally”, to be weak.