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ATMI's Emosyn Unit And Xicor Announce Strategic Alliance For The Smart Card Market
DANBURY, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 1998--Emosyn, the
fabless smart card venture of ATMI, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATMI) and Xicor,
Inc. (Nasdaq: XICO), today announced they have entered into a
strategic alliance focused on integrated circuit (IC) sales to smart
card applications.
Under the terms of this agreement ATMI, through its Emosyn
division, has the right to become Xicor's exclusive sales channel for
Xicor IC products in chip or module form, to customers who focus on
smart card applications. While the initial thrust by Emosyn will be
on Europe, the agreement provides for expansion into other regions of
the world if certain objectives are met. Using its existing
distribution channels, Xicor will continue to sell these products
worldwide to all customers who focus on applications other than smart
cards. Additionally, Xicor and Emosyn will jointly define future IC
products suitable for the smart card industry, to be manufactured by
Xicor and sold by Emosyn.
Nicholas Wood, Vice President and General Manager of Emosyn said,
"Xicor's IC products - combined with Emosyn's advanced
controller-based solutions and development tools - give Emosyn a
comprehensive line of products to compete effectively in the fast
growing smart card market."
According to Bruce Gray, Xicor's President and COO, "Xicor has
identified security solutions in general, and in the smart card
market in particular, as a growth area, and has invested in
developing products targeted at this market. Because of the uniquely
complex nature of the smart card market sector and the need to
support a broad product line, we believe that greater success in this
sector can be achieved by a well-focused and dedicated sales and
support organization such as can be provided by Emosyn. We expect
this alliance to enable both companies to benefit from the growth of
the smart card market."
Dr. Peter Kirlin, Executive Vice President of ATMI, said, "This
is another example of the ATMI business model at work. By acquiring
access to Xicor's IC products, we broaden our product offerings in
the smart card market niche - effectively accelerating Emosyn's rate
of growth in its drive toward market leadership."
As part of this agreement, ATMI has purchased from Xicor
1,000,000 unregistered common shares at $4 per share, in addition to
the rights listed above. Upon achieving mutually agreed goals - but
not before the end of 2001 - ATMI has an option to purchase the
rights to Xicor's Security IC Product line, for use only in smart
card applications. Xicor would then supply such chips to Emosyn,
while continuing to sell its security products using its distribution
channels to all applications other than smart cards.
Xicor designs, develops, manufactures, and sells non-volatile
in-the-system programmable products which retain information even
when system power is turned off or is inadvertently lost. Xicor's
product line includes EEPROMs, non-volatile static RAMs (NOVRAMs),
digitally controlled potentiometers (XDCPs), smart analog IC's,
security ICs, and system management IC's. Xicor product, corporate,
and financial information is readily accessible on the worldwide web
at xicor.com
Emosyn, an ATMI Venture, is a fabless semiconductor company,
focusing on smart card integrated circuit devices. ATMI provides
products and services for semiconductor device manufacture, including
thin film materials and delivery systems marketed through ADCS,
environmental equipment marketed through EcoSys, thin film deposition
services marketed through Epitronics, sub-atmospheric gas delivery
systems marketed through NovaSource, and high-purity materials
packaging systems marketed through NOW. |
