Time for a little spring cleaning,
August 04, 1999 22:17
VIA Technologies to Acquire IDT's Centaur Design
Subsidiary; Companies to Cross-License
Technology
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 1999--VIA Technologies,
Inc. and IDT, Inc. (Nasdaq:IDTI) today announced they have signed a letter of
commitment for VIA to acquire certain assets of IDT's Centaur design
subsidiary, including intellectual property (IP) related to WinChip
microprocessor technology and the x86 microprocessor design team located in
Austin, Texas. This agreement follows the July 14, 1999 announcement that
IDT will exit the x86 microprocessor market.
"VIA's acquisition of IDT's Centaur design subsidiary further solidifies our
design capability in the x86 arena," said Wen-Chi Chen, President of VIA
Technologies. "This represents an exciting step forward in our vision to connect
with our industry partners."
"We are pleased that VIA values the considerable intellectual property,
products and design team embodied in IDT's Centaur design subsidiary," said
Len Perham, CEO of IDT. "This transaction will complete IDT's exit from the
x86 market that was announced last month. It will enable IDT to intensify its
focus on the company's core communications business."
VIA and IDT have also entered into a patent cross-license agreement, allowing
each company to utilize IP covered by the other's patents, including those
Centaur patents acquired by VIA in the above transaction. This cross license
extends over the life of these patents.
About VIA
Founded in 1987, VIA Technologies, Inc. headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan,
designs, engineers and manufactures cost-effective, highly integrated, high
functionality system logic chipsets and associated peripherals for
manufacturers of desktop and portable PC systems.
About IDT
IDT enables a digitally connected world by providing innovative semiconductor
solutions to leading-edge system designers in communications and computing.
IDT's broad product mix consists of communications memories, networking
devices, RISC microprocessors, high-speed SRAMs, high-performance logic
and clock management products.
Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., the company employs approximately
4,700 people worldwide and has manufacturing facilities in California, Oregon,
the Philippines, Malaysia and Australia. IDT stock is traded on the Nasdaq
stock market under the symbol "IDTI." Additional information about IDT is
easily accessible through the Web (www.idt.com), CD-ROM by calling
800/345-7015 or via fax-on-demand at 800/9-IDT-FAX. The investor hotline is
408/654-6420.
Forward-looking statements in this release involve a number of risks and
uncertainties including, but not limited to, product demand, manufacturing,
capacity and costs, competition, pricing, patent and other intellectual property
rights of third parties, timely development and supply of new products and
manufacturing processes, availability of capital, cash flow and other risk factors
detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Actual
results may differ materially from the Company's projections.
Note to Editors: VIA is spelled in ALL CAPS. All trade names and marks are
the property of their respective companies.
CONTACT: IDT Corporate Communications
Julie Cline, 408/654-6464
cline@idt.com
or
IDT Asia Pacific
Daphnie Liu, (852) 2736-0122
daphnie.liu@idt.com
or
VIA Technologies, United States
Jonathan Chang, 510/683-3300 ext. 3305
jonathan@viatech.com
or
VIA Technologies, Taiwan
Sean Davidson, (886) 2-2218-5452 ext. 6201
sdavidson@via.com.tw
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