Lattice, whose management want to sell it to the China-backed private equity company Canyon Bridge, has filed an 8-k report with the US SEC stating that CFIUS, the committee which vets foreign investors, has ‘indicated’ that it will recommend to the President that it he should ban the sale.

Lattice says it hopes that President Trump will allow the merger to be ‘consummated’.

Lattice says it will try to allay any security feats.

However CFIUS may also be concerned about the sale because it will give China access to a key technology these days – the use of FPGA technology to accelerate SoCs.

Intel paid over $14 billion to acquire that technology when it bought Altera.

President Obama stopped a lot of China-backed attempts to buy US high-tech companies and President Trump’s decision will show whether or not the Trump administration  will take a different view.