To: John Miz who wrote (10709 ) 3/27/2000 12:27:00 PM From: Jim Oravetz Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 11555
BW March 27, 2000--Clear Logic(R), Inc. today announced an agreement with its major investor, Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:IDTI), under which IDT will reduce its equity stake in the company from 81% to 56% of the common share equivalents in exchange for $22 million in redeemable preferred stock. The transaction positions Clear Logic to fund its anticipated rapid growth. Upon completion of the transaction, IDT will hold 56% of Clear Logic's common share equivalents and a total of $34 million of Clear Logic debt. Clear Logic develops and markets integrated circuits that replace Altera(R)'s (Nasdaq:ALTR) popular lines of programmable logic devices with cost savings of up to 70%. The company's drop-in replacements for Altera's MAX(R) 7000 and FLEX(R) 8000 devices have been commercially successful. For instance, Clear Logic has captured designs believed to represent over 15% of the dollar volume as Altera's largest customer. The company plans to sample replacement devices for the rapidly growing Altera FLEX 10KA family in the third quarter of 2000. Clear Logic has shipped production volumes to Alcatel, Cisco, Matsushita and NEC and has sampled over 100 potential customers, including EMC, Lucent and Siemens. Alan Krock, IDT's CFO stated, "IDT has had other venture investments that have achieved excellent financial success, and this transaction moves us towards a similar position as a passive, minority investor. The present capital restructuring of Clear Logic gives the company the ability to tap into larger sources of capital from a broader investor base. A broader universe of funding sources will enable Clear Logic to accelerate new product development and reach the IPO stage much more quickly." According to Al Huggins, Clear Logic's CEO, "We are grateful to IDT for believing in our concept and providing initial funding. We have received good preliminary interest from both potential funding partners and strategic partners. We are in the early phases of examining the receptivity of public capital markets. "We have enjoyed good success in the first phase of our growth plan by offering customers an effortless cost-reduction path. Our devices are unique in providing identical functionality to Altera parts at dramatic cost savings. Our existing products will support strong growth in 2000, and the introduction of our CL10K family will accelerate growth entering next year. In addition, we are planning new, FPGA plug-compatible architectures for introduction in 2001. "Longer term, we intend to expand the market and accelerate its growth. The sharp cost reductions enabled by our technologies will drive new business opportunities which cannot now be cost effectively addressed. In the future, we plan to complement our value proposition with a performance proposition which will establish a new market positioned between PLDs and ASICs (application specific integrated circuits). We are the natural leader of that new market segment." Clear Logic is a fabless chip supplier and the world leader in a new market sector of FPGA Compatible Logic Devices(TM) (FCLD(TM)s). Clear Logic was founded in May 1996 as a venture subsidiary of Integrated Device Technology (IDT). Clear Logic's software, hardware and manufacturing processes reflect $34 million of capital contributions. Clear Logic has 59 employees. Intellectual property includes 44 disclosed inventions, 16 patent filings pending, and 9 issued patents. The company is located in San Jose, California. IDT provides wafer fabrication services.