Tuesday, March 29, 2011

ANADIGICS CEO Mario Rivas and SVP Greg White resign

WARREN, NJ, March 28, 2011 - ANADIGICS, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANAD), announced the resignation of President and Chief Executive Officer Mario Rivas and Senior Vice President Greg White. The Company also announced that it’s First Quarter 2011 revenue guidance remains on track with previous revenue guidance of $42 - $44 million.

Ron Michels, who was the SVP, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, will assume the responsibilities of the CEO, Tom Shields, who currently serves as EVP & CFO, will assume the additional post of COO and John Van Saders, who was the VP Advanced Technology, will serve as SVP RF Products.

Lew Solomon, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said, "Mario has been instrumental in ANADIGICS return to profitability during 2010 and we wish him well in his future endeavors. We are grateful to him for his efforts and success at helping ANADIGICS better realize the Company's potential. The Board is confident moving forward under the leadership of Ron Michels, a proven ANADIGICS executive respected by his peers and our customers, and one of the key executives driving our successful turnaround. We remain focused and in a strong competitive position given the Company's world-class organization, momentum with customers, targeted product families, and product roadmap."

Michels, 57, joined ANADIGICS in 1987 and was SVP/General Manager of Broadband Products during the period of 2005 – 2009. Prior to that, he served and has served in several management and executive positions during that time. Prior to joining ANADIGICS, he held various engineering and management positions in Lockheed Electronics, New Jersey Public Broadcasting, and K & M Broadcasting. Mr. Michels earned his Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He holds several U.S. Patents, has authored a number of publications in the area of RF communications and serves on the Lehigh University Electrical & Computer Engineering Advisory Board.

Shields, 51, joined ANADIGICS in 1999 and has been the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company since January 2006. He had previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company from July 1999. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Shields served as Vice President and Controller of Fisher Scientific Company from 1997 to 1999. From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Shields served as Vice President and Controller for Harman Consumer Group. From 1986 to 1994, Mr. Shields served in various positions with Baker & Taylor, Inc. Mr. Shields received his B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Mr. Shields has been a member of the national Board of Directors for TechAmerica (formerly American Electronics Association) since 2005.

Van Saders, 52, is a long term veteran of ANADIGICS. He had previously served as VP Advanced Development since 2007. From the period of 2001 to 2006, he served as the VP, Engineering and Manufacturing for ASIP, an optoelectronics startup which later merged with T-Networks. He originally joined ANADIGICS in 1990 as a design engineer, serving in several management and executive product development positions. He earned a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering (Communication Theory) from NJIT and holds a Bachelors degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in Optical Physics. He has several patents in circuit design and optical processing, and has authored a number of technical publications.

About their new roles President and Chief Executive Officer Ron Michels stated, “ANADIGICS is a great company with innovative technology and talented people. I am looking forward to working more closely with the team. We will work hard to make sure we keep the confidence and trust of our customers during this transition and beyond.”

About ANADIGICS, Inc.

ANADIGICS, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANAD) delivers integrated radio frequency (RF) solutions that OEMs and ODMs demand to optimize the performance of wireless, broadband and cable applications across all major networks and standards. ANADIGICS features a diverse portfolio of highly linear, highly efficient RFICs. Headquartered in Warren, NJ, the company's award-winning products include power amplifiers, tuner integrated circuits, active splitters, line amplifiers and other components that can be purchased individually or packaged as integrated RF and front-end modules. For more information, visit www.anadigics.com.

Monday, March 21, 2011

NetLogic Microsystems acquires Optichron

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NetLogic Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NETL), a worldwide leader in high-performance intelligent semiconductor solutions for next-generation Internet networks, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Optichron, Inc., a privately-held, fabless semiconductor provider of 3G/4G LTE base station digital front-end (DFE) processors, located in Fremont, Calif. Optichron’s breakthrough DFE technology enables unprecedented performance, signal bandwidth, spectrum maximization and power efficiency for next-generation LTE deployments requiring the highest data rates and lowest power consumption.

The acquisition of Optichron will expand and broaden NetLogic Microsystems’ footprint in 3G/4G LTE base stations by complementing NetLogic Microsystems’ market-leading portfolio of multi-core processors, knowledge-based processors and 10 Gigabit Ethernet PHY solutions. Optichron’s innovative DFE processors have been designed into next-generation base stations by multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and NetLogic Microsystems expects that the acquisition will accelerate Optichron’s technical leadership and product roadmaps in the advanced 40nm process node and beyond.

The exponential growth in mobile data traffic in the next five years, coupled with global spectrum scarcity, are forcing service providers and operators worldwide to push the limits on capacity and throughput for their limited spectrum. This is in turn driving a need for next-generation base stations that can support dramatically wider bandwidth, significantly more signal channels and more protocols (2G/3G/4G) in each band. Conventional DFE processing solutions typically support narrow bandwidths, a limited number of channels and a single protocol per signal band, and are therefore costly and inefficient for high-throughput base stations.

Optichron’s best-in-class DFE processors are highly differentiated and ideally suited to address these challenging LTE requirements. They deliver unparalleled performance of up to 5X increase in signal bandwidth and up to 9X increase in instantaneous bandwidth over available competing solutions, which dramatically improves 3G/4G LTE data rates. In addition, Optichron’s breakthrough products enable the industry’s highest spectrum efficiency through the simultaneous processing of multiple signal channels per frequency band, as well as the multi-mode co-existence of 4G LTE, 3G and 2G protocols. This unique ability to support multiple signals and multiple protocols in a significantly wider bandwidth spectrum is enabling service providers to upgrade the performance and functionality of existing base stations without the time and costs associated with deploying new base stations or antennas. Moreover, Optichron’s innovative DFE processors greatly improve the cost and power profiles of next-generation base stations by eliminating the need for costly and very power-hungry FPGA devices and conventional DFE solutions that are traditionally used to implement DFE functionality.

These processors from Optichron are the industry’s only intelligent self-adaptive DFE processors today that calibrate in real-time to real-world environments and variations, thereby accelerating and enhancing the manageability of LTE developments for Tier One original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Optichron also delivers up to 80 percent better transmit power efficiency than available competing solutions, which results in significantly lower power consumption per megabits-per-second (Mbps) to enable OEMs to meet increasingly stringent power profiles in operator networks.

“Our combination with Optichron further solidifies our commitment to, and our increasing R&D investments in, the communications infrastructure market. DFE processors are an increasingly critical element of next-generation 3G/4G LTE common-platform base stations, and the combination of NetLogic Microsystems and Optichron further strengthens our technical leadership in this very exciting market,” said Ron Jankov, president and chief executive officer at NetLogic Microsystems. “We are very excited to welcome the Optichron team to the NetLogic Microsystems family. Optichron’s culture of strong engineering excellence having developed the industry’s most innovative, highly differentiated products creates a natural alignment with our organization.”

“As a clear technology and market leader in DFE processing, Optichron shares strong customer synergies in the 3G/4G mobile infrastructure with NetLogic Microsystems, and the combined company will have one of the most compelling and comprehensive product portfolios for next-generation base stations,” said Roy Batruni, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Optichron. “We are very pleased to join forces with NetLogic Microsystems and we believe as part of NetLogic Microsystems, we will be able to accelerate our innovation, technology leadership and product roadmaps.”

In connection with the acquisition, NetLogic Microsystems will pay the Optichron stockholders initial cash consideration of approximately $77 million upon the closing of the transaction. NetLogic Microsystems will assume approximately $22 million of restricted stock units for employees of Optichron who join NetLogic Microsystems following the close of the acquisition. In addition, NetLogic Microsystems will pay the Optichron stockholders an earn-out upon the attainment of performance milestones through 2012 for the acquired business. If the maximum earn-out is achieved, an additional cash consideration of approximately $108.5 million would be payable by March 31, 2013, and, an additional consideration of $12.5 million would be paid in shares of NetLogic Microsystems common stock (valued approximately at closing date value), issued only to several Optichron employees, subject to their continued employment after the acquisition. The acquisition has been approved by both companies’ board of directors, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011 and remains subject to customary closing conditions.

About NetLogic Microsystems

NetLogic Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NETL) is a worldwide leader in high-performance intelligent semiconductor solutions that are powering next-generation Internet networks. NetLogic Microsystems’ best-in-class products perform highly differentiated tasks of accelerating complex network traffic to significantly enhance the performance and functionality of advanced 3G/4G mobile wireless infrastructure, data center, enterprise, metro Ethernet, edge and core infrastructure networks. NetLogic Microsystems’ market-leading product portfolio includes high-performance multi-core processors, knowledge-based processors, content processors, network search engines, ultra low-power embedded processors and high-speed 10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet PHY solutions. These products are designed into high-performance systems such as switches, routers, wireless base stations, security appliances, networked storage appliances, service gateways and connected media devices offered by leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). NetLogic Microsystems is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and has offices and design centers throughout North America, Asia and Europe. For more information about products offered by NetLogic Microsystems, call +1-408-454-3000 or visit the NetLogic Microsystems Web site at http://www.netlogicmicro.com.

About Optichron, Inc.

Optichron, Inc., the leader in digital nonlinear signal processing technology, designs and manufactures high-volume integrated circuits that enable significant improvements in system-level cost and performance for communications applications. Optichron’s proprietary linearization technology is the industry’s most efficient solution for correcting nonlinear distortion, a problem present in all signal processing systems. Signal linearization gives system designers more headroom to implement faster, more efficient systems that cost less to build and operate. Optichron’s investors include U.S. Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, TL Ventures and VentureTech Alliance. For more information and product details please visit http://www.optichron.com.

Broadcom acquires Provigent for $313M

IRVINE, Calif., March 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Provigent, a privately-held leading provider of highly integrated, high performance, mixed signal semiconductors for microwave backhaul systems, with offices in Israel and Santa Clara, Calif. Broadcom provides one of the industry's broadest portfolios of Ethernet networking solutions for service provider infrastructure including the mobile backhaul. With the addition of Provigent's engineering expertise in microwave radio products, the company expands its robust portfolio to more thoroughly address the $5B microwave backhaul equipment business(1).

In order to manage the exponential growth in wireless traffic and transition to 4G, carriers are faced with the challenge of backhauling data from the cell sites to the core network. Microwave backhaul is the most prevalent type of technology used in the multi-billion dollar global mobile backhaul business, representing greater than 50 percent of all solutions(1).

"Provigent is a unique asset with world-class microwave backhaul technology and strong engineering talent developing innovative and highly integrated semiconductor solutions for the microwave segment," said Rajiv Ramaswami, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Infrastructure and Networking Group. "Combining their microwave backhaul solutions with our industry leading network infrastructure and wireless solutions allows us to better serve our customers and expand our addressable market."

"Provigent's System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions are used to solve a crucial problem in the infrastructure of cellular networks, which is the backhaul bottleneck," said Dan Charash, Chief Executive Officer, Provigent. "The many synergies with Broadcom's broad portfolio of wireline and wireless SoC technologies and capabilities will accelerate product development and provide our customers with a compelling offering."

In connection with the acquisition, Broadcom expects to pay approximately $313 million, net of cash assumed, to acquire all of the outstanding shares of capital stock and other equity rights of Provigent. The purchase price will be paid in cash, except that a portion attributable to certain unvested employee stock options will be paid in Broadcomrestricted stock units. A portion of the cash consideration will be placed into escrow pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement. Broadcom expects the acquisition of Provigent to be neutral to earnings in 2011. The boards of directors of the two companies have approved the merger. The transaction is expected to close in Broadcom's second quarter, 2011, and remains subject to the satisfaction of regulatory requirements and other customary closing conditions.

About Provigent

Provigent is a leading supplier of SoC solutions for the Broadband Wireless Transmission industry. Provigent's field-proven, mass production SoC solutions offer significant system level enhancements while lowering overall system cost. With an established economy of scale, significant R&D investments and a focused dedication to the Broadband Wireless Transmission industry, Provigent continues to establish itself as a leading SoC provider. More information is available on the Web at www.Provigent.com or via e-mail at info@provigent.com.

(1) Infonetics Mobile Backhaul Equipment Revenue Forecast (4Q10), $5.2B in revenue by 2014

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation is a prominent technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

MediaTek and Ralink merge

MediaTek Inc. (TSE:2454;MediaTek) has finalized its merger agreement with Ralink Technology Corporation (TSE:3534;Ralink) through a share swap of 1 share for 3.15 shares of Ralink, making MediaTek as the surviving entity. The transaction has been approved by the respective boards of directors of MediaTek and Ralink and is expected to take effect on October 1, 2011, pending shareholder approval and other regulatory reviews.

The share exchange ratio approved by the respective Boards was based on internal and external assessments of the strategic value of the proposed merger, average market capitalization analyses and consideration of relevant precedent transactions. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 of 2011.

The transaction unleashes growth opportunities driven by complementary technologies at the platform level as well as addressable market expansion. Commenting on the proposed merger, Mr. MK Tsai, Chairman of MediaTek said, “We expect Wi-Fi connectivity to continue increasing in popularity in the portable consumer and enterprise electronics industries, as well as the digital home. Thus, MediaTek’s addressable market in game consoles, media players, tablets, and TVs will instantaneously expand with the addition of Ralink’s full line of Wi-Fi chips, including fixed, portable and mobile solutions; next generation innovations in technologies like 802.11 ac/ad and VDSL; and world-class customers.”

In addition to providing MediaTek with advanced technology, the acquisition of Ralink will bring an industry-leading team of engineers to the company. Ralink Chairman Mr. Chris Kao said, “MediaTek and Ralink have a long history of collaboration in digital consumer products and share a culture of technical innovation. We see great opportunities to leverage the technologies that MediaTek has successfully deployed in wireless communication devices to accelerate the proliferation of connected devices throughout home and work. Also, MediaTek’s strong portfolio of products and channels in handsets, connectivity, and digital home solutions will be greatly augmented by Ralink’s wireless LAN and broadband business."

In the growing market for wireless connectivity semiconductors, the combined company will offer its customers a world-class portfolio of Wi-Fi solutions and other market-leading networking technologies like Bluetooth, GPS, xDSL, and Ethernet. Similarly, employees and shareholders will benefit from the economies of scale and scope resulting from this exciting merger.

About MediaTek Inc.
MediaTek Inc. is a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions. The company is a market leader and pioneer in cutting-edge SOC system solutions for wireless communications, high-definition TV, optical storage, and DVD and Blu-ray products. Founded in 1997 and listed on Taiwan Stock Exchange under the code "2454", MediaTek is headquartered in Taiwan and has sales and research subsidiaries in Mainland China, Singapore, India, U.S., Japan, Korea, Denmark, England and Dubai. For more information, please visit MediaTek’s website at www.mediatek.com .

About Ralink Technology Corporation 
Ralink Technology Corporation is a leading innovator and developer in the wireless home networking and broadband access semiconductor markets. Ralink products are recognized for their superior performance and reliability, rich feature set, low-power consumption, and high levels of integration. Ralink’s patented OptiLink™ technology extends Wi-Fi applications from traditional PC networking to a range of digital multimedia and handheld devices including digital cameras, printers, digital televisions, Blu-ray players, set top boxes, video game consoles and broadband access gateways. Ralink Technology was founded in 2001 with headquarters in HsinChu, Taiwan, R&D centers in Cupertino, California and Suzhou, China, and sales offices in China, Europe, and Japan. For more information about Ralink please visit our website at www.ralinktech.com

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Cavium Networks acquires Celestial Semiconductor

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 9, 2011 – Cavium Networks (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications, and the digital home, today announced that they have completed their acquisition of China-based privately held Celestial Semiconductor on March 4th, finalizing an agreement that was announced January 31st 2011.

Celestial provides a family of ARM-based high-performance SoCs with HD quality video processing, multi-source video input and multi-format video playback. These SoCs combine transport processing, image processing, multi-standard media playback in 480/720/1080p, noise reduction, de-interlacing, audio processing, video encoding, advanced video post processing and picture enhancement, 2D/3D graphics, advanced security and content protection. A full range of input and output options including S/PDIF, DVI, HDMI, composite and component analog video, Ethernet, digital input, SATA, USB, and audio are also provided as part of a low cost BOM design. This is combined with a feature rich software solution complete with graphical user interface and support for major conditional access standards that are required by content providers and Telcos.

Celestial products have been designed into a range of devices such as set top boxes (STB), IPTV, Interactive TVs, Net multimedia players, and portable media players being deployed by cable and telecom media service providers, Interactive cable operators, multiple system operators (MSO) in China and other emerging geographies.

About Cavium Networks
Cavium Networks is a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing in networking, communications and the digital home.. Cavium Networks offers a broad portfolio of integrated, software compatible processors ranging in performance from 10 Mbps to 40 Gbps that enable secure, intelligent functionality in enterprise, data-center, broadband/consumer and access & service provider equipment. Cavium Networks processors are supported by ecosystem partners that provide operating systems, tool support, reference designs and other services. Cavium Networks principal offices are in Mountain View, California with design team locations in California, Massachusetts, India and Taiwan. For more information, please visit: http://www.caviumnetworks.com

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

LSI to Sell External Storage Systems Business to NetApp for $480 Million

MILPITAS, Calif., March 9, 2011 – LSI Corporation (NYSE: LSI) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its external storage systems business to NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) for $480 million in cash. The company also announced today that its board of directors has authorized a new stock repurchase program of up to $750 million.
The company is emerging from a multi-year investment cycle which has significantly increased the opportunities and potential of its core semiconductor business. The strategic decision to divest the external storage systems business was based on the company’s expectation that long-term shareholder value can be maximized by becoming a pure-play semiconductor company.

“We’re excited by the opportunities we have been pursuing in our semiconductor business and are well positioned at the forefront of a strong pipeline of design win ramps that we expect to drive top line growth,” said Abhi Talwalkar, LSI president and chief executive officer. “Going forward as a pure-play storage and networking semiconductor company, we believe we can accelerate the achievement of our current business model, establish a richer business model target, and deliver greater long-term shareholder value.”

Under terms of the agreement, NetApp will purchase substantially all the assets of the LSI external storage systems business, which develops and delivers Engenio® external storage systems products and technology to a wide range of partners that provide storage solutions to end customers. The business being purchased generated revenues of $705 million in 2010.

The LSI RAID adapter business, which develops LSI® MegaRAID® and 3ware® storage controllers and software for direct-attached storage environments, will remain with LSI.

Upon closing, most LSI external storage systems employees are expected to join NetApp, a global provider of storage and data management solutions.

“NetApp will build upon the success of the Engenio storage platform and OEM business model to expand our total addressable market and extend our market reach,” said Tom Georgens, NetApp president and CEO. “We’re excited about the talented team that will join NetApp and the valuable OEM partner relationships we’re committed to supporting and making successful.”

Talwalkar added, “As the market requirements for external storage systems continue to trend toward more comprehensive solutions and offerings, greater investment levels are required to enable additional growth opportunities. We believe that NetApp is well positioned to provide the needed technologies and scale to grow the external storage systems business and better serve our customers going forward.”

About the Transaction
As a result of the sale, LSI expects to eliminate $35 million to $40 million per quarter of operating expenses upon closing of the transaction.

LSI expects the combined effect of the transaction, its associated expense reduction, the new stock repurchase program and anticipated strong revenue growth in its semiconductor business going forward to be slightly dilutive to 2011 earnings per share (EPS) and neutral to accretive to 2012 EPS.

The company does not expect to incur any material tax obligations in connection with the transaction and expects to provide additional financial information after closing the transaction.

The transaction is expected to close in approximately 60 days, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals including those required by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Ramius succeeds in raid on Zoran board

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - March 8, 2011) - Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ: ZRAN), a leading provider of digital solutions for applications in the digital entertainment and digital imaging markets, today confirmed that Ramius Value and Opportunity Master Fund Ltd, a Zoran stockholder, has delivered the requisite consents to elect three new independent directors to Zoran's Board of Directors in substitution for three of Zoran's current independent Board members.

"We welcome the new directors to the Zoran Board and look forward to working together on behalf of our stockholders," said Dr. Levy Gerzberg, president and chief executive officer of Zoran. "We would also like to thank our three departing board members for their many years of service and contribution to Zoran's success."

"We are pleased with the conclusion of the consent solicitation which will enable Zoran's executives to return all of their attention to running the business and serving Zoran's customers," said Jeffrey C. Smith, Ramius Partner Managing Director. "We look forward to working constructively with the Board and management."

As previously announced, Zoran has entered into a merger agreement under which Zoran will merge with CSR plc. Completion is expected in the second quarter of 2011 and is subject to the approval of CSR and Zoran stockholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.