Atmel Corporation Completes Sale of SMS Business to INSIDE Contactless S.A.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), a leader in microcontroller and touch solutions, today announced that it has completed the previously announced sale of Atmel's Smart Card (SMS) business based in Rousset, France and East Kilbride, UK to INSIDE Contactless S.A. ("INSIDE").  

At closing, INSIDE paid approximately $32 million in cash to Atmel after an adjustment based on the working capital of the transferred business.  Atmel may receive additional cash consideration of up to $21 million if the SMS business under INSIDE's control meets certain financial targets in 2010 and 2011.  As part of the transaction, Atmel has made a minority investment in INSIDE of approximately $4 million and entered into a royalty-based intellectual property license agreement to support current and future SMS products.

As of the closing of the transaction, approximately 160 employees were transferred to INSIDE.  The SMS business had revenues of approximately $27 million for Atmel during the second quarter of 2010.  This transaction follows Atmel's sale of its wafer fabrication operation in Rousset, France, to LFoundry GmbH, which closed during the second quarter of 2010.  

"This transaction, along with the sale of the Rousset wafer fabrication operation, fulfill the objectives that we outlined when we announced our plan to pursue strategic alternatives for Atmel's ASIC business and related manufacturing assets," said Steven Laub, Atmel's President and Chief Executive Officer.  "Our strategic focus continues to be on advancing our core microcontroller and touch businesses which are currently experiencing rapid revenue increases and provide substantial future growth opportunities."

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch solutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on industrial, consumer, security, communications, computing and automotive markets.  

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Information in this release regarding Atmel's business outlook, expectations and beliefs are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements include statements about our beliefs relating to the potential growth of our core microcontroller and touch businesses.  All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to Atmel as of the date of this release, which may change, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include general economic conditions; the impact of competitive products and pricing; timely design acceptance by our customers; timely introduction of new products and technologies; ability to ramp new products into volume production; industry wide shifts in supply and demand for semiconductor products; industry and/or company overcapacity; effective and cost efficient utilization of manufacturing capacity; financial stability in foreign markets and the impact of foreign exchange rates; compliance with U.S. and international laws and regulations by us and our distributors; unfavorable results of legal proceedings; and other risks detailed from time to time in Atmel's SEC reports and filings, including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, filed on March 1, 2010, and our subsequent Form 10-Q reports. Atmel assumes no obligation and does not intend to update the forward-looking statements provided, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Atmel Corporation