To: xcr600 who wrote (35144 ) 11/22/2001 7:27:59 PM From: Johnny Canuck Respond to of 68065 ESST Competitors from 10K: The Company's existing and potential competitors consist principally of large domestic and international companies that have substantially greater financial, manufacturing, technical, marketing, distribution and other resources, greater intellectual property rights, broader product lines and longer-standing relationships with customers than the Company. The Company's competitors also include a number of smaller and emerging companies. The Company's principal PC audio competitors include Cirrus Logic, Creative Technology and Yamaha. The Company's principal video (including VCD/SVCD and DVD) competitors include C-Cube Microsystems, Winbond, LSI Logic, National Semiconductor, Zoran and SGS Thomson. The Company's principal communication competitors include Lucent Technologies, PC-Tel, Conexant, 3Com and Texas Instruments. The Company's principal Internet-related semiconductor competitors include National Semiconductor, Zoran and LuxSonor. Certain of the Company's current and potential competitors maintain their own semiconductor fabrication facilities and may therefore benefit from certain capacity, cost and technical advantages. The Company believes that its ability to compete successfully depends on a number of factors, both within and outside of its control, including the price, quality and performance of the Company's and its competitors' products, the timing and success of new product introductions by the Company, its customers and its competitors, the emergence of new multimedia standards, the development of technical innovations, the ability to obtain adequate foundry capacity and sources of raw materials, the efficiency of production, the rate at which the Company's customers design the Company's products into their products, the number and nature of the Company's competitors in a given market, the assertion of intellectual property rights and general market and economic conditions. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to compete successfully in the future.