Silver Lake Sumeru Invests in Spansion

MENLO PARK, Calif., May 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Silver Lake Sumeru, the middle market investment group of Silver Lake, announced today that it recently closed on an investment in Spansion Inc., a supplier of flash memory to embedded and targeted applications markets.  Spansion filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in March 2009 and successfully emerged from bankruptcy on May 10, 2010 as a re-organized entity with strong operating results and a well capitalized balance sheet.  Spansion currently has approximately $480 million in debt, $230 million of cash and a $65 million undrawn, asset-backed, line of credit.

"Silver Lake Sumeru is pleased to be an investor in the newly emerged Spansion," said Ajay Shah, Managing Director of Silver Lake Sumeru.  "The embedded applications market is growing at a significant rate and we look forward to engaging with the Spansion management team as the re-organized company works to become the leader in supplying flash memory to this market."

"We are very happy to have Silver Lake Sumeru as a major equity partner in Spansion," said John Kispert, President and CEO of Spansion.  "We look forward to leveraging the firm's operational expertise and track record of partnering with technology companies as we take our business to the next level."

Silver Lake Sumeru is appointing two of the Spansion board members who will assist the company as it seeks to evolve from a capital-intensive broad-based flash memory business to a focused cash-flow-generative supplier serving embedded and targeted wireless markets.  

Spansion's NOR solutions are ubiquitous in the consumer electronics, automotive, telecommunications equipment, computer peripherals, and mobile telephone markets.  

About Silver Lake Sumeru

Silver Lake Sumeru is the leader in private investments in middle-market technology companies. The Silver Lake Sumeru team applies fundamental operating insight, deep technology sector expertise, and world-class investing skills to acquire and manage companies. Silver Lake Sumeru's portfolio includes sector-leading technology companies such as AVI-SPL, i2, Mobile Messenger, and Power-One. Silver Lake Sumeru is a group within Silver Lake, a private investment firm with a leading market position in large cap investments in technology, technology-enabled, and related growth industries. Silver Lake's portfolio includes or has included technology industry leaders such as Ameritrade, Avago, Avaya, Business Objects, Flextronics, Gartner, Gerson Lehrman Group, Instinet, Intelsat, IPC Systems, MCI, NASDAQ, NetScout, NXP, Sabre Holdings, Seagate Technology, Serena Software, Skype, SunGard Data Systems, Thomson and UGS. For more information, please visit www.silverlake.com.

About Spansion

Spansion's technology is at the heart of electronics systems, powering everything from the internet of today to the smart grid of tomorrow, positively impacting people's daily lives at work and play. Spansion's broad product portfolio, smart innovation and industry leading service and support are enabling customers to achieve greater efficiency and success in their target markets. For more information, visit http://www.spansion.com.

SOURCE Silver Lake Sumeru