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JMAR Executes Technology Licensing Agreement With Philips Semiconductors
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2000--
-- New Technology Strengthens JMAR's Semiconductor Design and
Manufacturing Capabilities for Broadband Telecomm Market
-- Positions JMAR to Support Philips Customer Base for Certain
Products
JMAR Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:JMAR), announced today that its JMAR Semiconductor Inc. (JSI) division has executed a technology licensing agreement with Philips Semiconductors, an affiliate of Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG).
Under the agreement, Philips Semiconductors will transfer portions of its current gate array design and manufacturing technology to JSI, which plans to apply it to a broad range of commercial and military applications. The agreement further strengthens and broadens JSI's ability to design and provide high-performance semiconductors for the rapidly expanding telecommunications market.
Commercially, the move will immediately position JSI as a key candidate to provide replacement semiconductors to Philips Semiconductors' broad base of existing customers. From a production perspective in the government sector, JSI could potentially install the technology at the new Department of Defense wafer fabrication facility that it recently constructed and staffed in Sacramento, Calif. Installing the technology at this facility could enhance JSI's ability to obtain future orders by giving it the means to manufacture a range of important application specific integrated circuits, or ASIC's for a variety of government systems.
"This new relationship with Philips Semiconductors not only provides JMAR with licensed and commercially-proven gate array technology but creates other exciting opportunities with customers that Philips Semiconductors no longer supports due to technology or volume considerations," said JSI President Marvin W. Sepe. "We welcome these additional opportunities to provide our products and services to these customers, many of whom are well-known providers of telecommunications systems. By so doing, we will further broaden JMAR's position in this dynamically growing market sector."
"JMAR Semiconductor is well equipped to extend the life of specific gate array designs for Philips Semiconductors' customers dependent on technologies that have been phased out of our plan," said Scott McGregor, executive vice president, Emerging Business Unit, Philips Semiconductors. "It was important to Philips Semiconductors to reach agreement with JMAR Semiconductor, an excellent company that has built a strong internal design team and solid tools to support customers with products that are dependent on these gate array designs. This works to the benefit of Philips Semiconductors, JMAR, and perhaps most importantly, our customers."
Sepe added, "The agreement with Philips Semiconductors is another example of the key strategic relationships that JSI is continuing to establish to dramatically expand its capabilities. JSI's other strategic relationships include design center and wafer supply agreements with Intersil (formerly Harris Semiconductor Inc.) and Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (WSMC), a technology licensing agreement with IMP Inc., and a technology support and supply agreement with Cadence Design Systems Inc. We have also established a series of supply chain relationships to assure turn-key capability for the complex high-performance semiconductor designs JSI plans to produce in the year 2000 and beyond."
He continued, "During the year 2000, we aim to target producers of the high-speed switching and data handling hardware critical to the growth of the broadband telecommunications industry. We expect JSI's new semiconductor chips to play an important role in accelerating the transmission of data, voice and Internet information for a broad range of users."
John S. Martinez, Ph.D., chairman and chief executive officer of JMAR Technologies Inc. added, "This agreement with Philips follows a series of equally positive advances JSI made throughout 1999 in its effort to become a major supplier of semiconductor products to the soaring communications industry. We expect JSI to yield a profit for 1999 on revenues in excess of $8 million, up from about $3 million in 1998 and less than $300 thousand a year earlier. We expect this agreement will help preserve that momentum by making a number of new market opportunities available to JSI." |
