AVX Records Suits Claim Kyocera’s Buyout Shortchanges Investors

Electronics maker AVX Corp. was hit with five separate Delaware records lawsuits seeking to probe whether its proposed buyout by partial parent Kyocera Corp. is “the quintessential unfair controlling stockholder take-private transaction.”

The $21.75-a-share deal would make AVX a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyocera, the Japanese multinational that currently owns 72% of it, according to the Chancery Court complaints.

The suits invoke a state law giving corporate shareholders expansive inspection rights if they credibly suspect board wrongdoing. They were filed by individual investors between Wednesday and Friday.

After the buyout was first proposed, AVX’s nine-member board—which includes six members with ...