Altium, the provider of software that facilitates the design of printed circuit boards, has been a popular, if volatile, tech stock on the ASX for many years now. It first shot to prominence in 2015 and 2016 after attracting investors' attention with its massive growth numbers. This saw Altium shares rise from around $3 at the start of 2015 to over $20 by early 2018.

As a result, Altium became one of the ASX's hottest growth stocks, and a key player in the old 'WAAAX' group of ASX tech shares. This WAAAX club was promoted as the ASX's answer to the famous FAANG group of tech stocks on the US markets for a while.

Of course, WAAAX has slowly dissolved in relevance over recent years. WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) and Xero Ltd (ASX: XRO) have continued to flourish.. But Afterpay was acquired by Block Inc (ASX: SQ2) back in 2022, and Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)'s star has faded. Altium shares' removal from the ASX is arguably the nail in the WAAAX coffin.

Japanese tech giant snaps up Altium

Investors were delighted back in February when Altium was approached by the Japanese company Renesas Electronics Corporation (TYO: 6723).

Renesas offered a chunky $9.1 billion (or $68.50 a share) for a complete takeover of Altium, which represented a 33.6% premium to the company's share price at the time. Investors jumped at the chance, and Altium shares rocketed in value. Ever since, the company has traded around that mark, arguably illustrating investor confidence and enthusiasm for the deal.

Check it out for yourself below:

Altium's board immediately recommended that shareholders vote to approve the deal. But this assent from investors only came last month on 12 July. With the deal also gaining the necessary regulatory approvals, the green light was given for Altium shares to be suspended from trading from 19 July.

On 25 July, shareholders received $68.50 in cash for their Altium shares. However, as of today, 2 August, Altium stock has only just been officially delisted from the ASX.

Can one buy Altium shares following their ASX exit?

Unlike Block's acquisition of Afterpay and subsequent ASX listing, Australian investors have no direct ASX pathway to owning Altium shares now that it has been removed from our local market. However, for true believers in this printed circuit board software stock, hope is not lost.

For one, they can always buy shares of Renesas directly from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Japanese stocks are not the easiest international shares for ASX investors to buy. But there are paths available if an investor is motivated enough. So for the purest exposure to Altium's business going forward, directly buying Renesas shares is probably the most effective path for bulls to take.

There is another option though, albeit less potent. ASX investors can buy the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (ASX: IJP), which is an index fund that tracks the MSCI Japan Index. This index offers exposure to around 85% of the entire Japanese stock market.

You'll get famous names like Sony, Nintendo and Toyota here, of course. But you'll also gain a small exposure to Renesas and, through it, Altium. Saying that, the current IJP weighting to Renesas sits at 0.64% of the ETF's portfolio. But that might be better than nothing for Altium shares' most ardent fans.

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