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To: w2j2 who wrote (5550)	9/24/2001 12:44:06 PM
From: Asymmetric	Respond to of 10713

Cree announces progress on buyback program Sept 17, 2001 triangle.bcentral.com Durham-based Cree Inc. has announced that it repurchased 1.85 million shares of its stock during the third quarter of fiscal 2001. Under a buyback plan announced in January 2001, the company is authorized to repurchase up to 7 million shares through the open market or privately negotiated transactions. Cree stock, whose price plummeted in the last year and a half, closed at $19.10 a share when the market shut down after last week's terrorist attacks. That was an 87 percent drop from a mid-July 2000 price of $150.84. In the last 52 weeks, the stock has vacillated between a high of $63.13 and a low of $12.21. In early June 2001, Banc of America Securities downgraded Cree from "Strong Buy" to "Buy" in response to a revenue warning issued by Spectrian Corp., one of Cree's customers. "Cree has a strong balance sheet and cash position," President and Chief Executive Officer Chuck Swoboda said in a statement. "Given that we anticipate generating positive cash flow from operations during the fiscal year, we believe in times of market volatility it is prudent to reaffirm our stock purchase program. Our ongoing strategy is to maximize shareholder value and we may repurchase shares if market and other conditions make such an investment attractive." The Business Journal reported in April that Swoboda had pocketed more than $4 million since May 2000 by cashing out lucrative stock options. Cree develops and manufactures semiconductor materials and devices based on silicon carbide, gallium nitride and related compounds. The company's products include blue and green light-emitting diodes and RF power transistors for use in wireless infrastructure applications.