JMAR: Signs Philips Semiconductor supply & design agreement. Very positive news. JMAR is a leader in state of the art technology, i.e., these telecommunications chips, and the DNA chip for biotechnology diagnostic products, and recent supply agreements. Things look great for the company. JMAR is truly a market gem.
Regards,
Jake Blackmerlin
"January 27, 3:12 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
JMAR Executes Technology Licensing
Agreement With Philips
Semiconductors
-- New Technology Strengthens JMAR's Semiconductor Design and
Manufacturing Capabilities for Broadband Telecomm Market
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2000-- -- Positions JMAR to Support Philips
Customer Base for Certain
Products
JMAR Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:JMAR - news), 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 - news).
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.'
JMAR Semiconductor, located in Irvine, Calif., is a provider of custom and standard high
performance semiconductors for the broad electronics market. Operating under a highly efficient
``fabless' strategy, JSI maintains key foundry relationships worldwide that allow the company to
offer a full range of capabilities in digital, analog and mixed signal technologies to the burgeoning
world communications market. Within this market, semiconductors accounted for an estimated $31
billion in sales in 1999.
JMAR Technologies Inc. is a semiconductor industry-focused company. In addition to the products
produced by JSI, JMAR Technologies provides a full range of measurement and inspection systems
for high-precision, sub-micron manufacturing applications and is a leading developer of proprietary
advanced laser and X-ray light sources for high-value microelectronics manufacturing and metrology
applications. It has also transitioned some of its key semiconductor manufacturing technology to the
biochip manufacturing industry. Please visit JMAR's Web site at www.jmar.com for additional
information on the company.
The statements regarding JMAR's expectations of the successful introduction of new products and
future sales and potential business opportunities are forward-looking statements based on current
expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. These risks include the failure of
future orders to materialize as expected, delays in shipment or cancellation of orders, failure of
acceptance of new products, failure of advanced technology to perform as predicted and the other
risks detailed in the company's Form 10-K and other reports filed with the SEC.
Contact:
JMAR Technologies Inc.
Dennis E. Valentine, 858/535-1706
jmar.com" |
