International Rectifier Corp. officials are urging shareholders to ignore a $23 dollar a share tender offer launched Monday by rival chip maker Vishay Intertechnology Inc.

“The Vishay offer is inadequate and should be rejected by our shareholders,” said Richard Dahl, International Rectifier chairman, in a statement late Monday. He added that Vishay, which made its first offer for the El Segundo power management chip maker on Aug. 15, has yet to secure commitments to fund the takeover.

The $23 per share cash offer values the company at about $1.7 billion. Vishay, based in Malvern, Pa., raised its all-cash bid earlier this month, and announced a hostile takeover campaign after International Rectifier’s board rejected the sweetened offer as still too low.

The tender offer expires on Oct. 27. International Rectifier, scheduled to hold its annual meeting on Oct. 10, has urged shareholders to ignore the offer, arguing the company is on the road to becoming more valuable than Vishay’s bid reflects.

At the shareholder’s meeting, Vishay plans to offer an alternative slate of three supporters to be elected to International Rectifier’s board.

“We believe our (offer) provides International Rectifier stockholders with superior value to what International Rectifier can reasonably achieve on its own in the foreseeable future,” said Vishay Executive Chairman Felix Zandman in a statement.

Shares of International Rectifier were up 18 cents, or 1 percent, to $19.88 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.