Cypress Agrees to Sell Silicon Valley Technology Center To Oak Hill Capital Partners and Tallwood Venture Capital
SAN JOSE, Calif., January 30, 2007 — Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (“Cypress”, NYSE: CY) today announced an agreement to sell its Silicon Valley Technology Center (“SVTC”) business to private equity firms Oak Hill Capital Partners (“Oak Hill”) and Tallwood Venture Capital (“Tallwood”) for approximately $53 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close by early March.
As part of the transaction, Cypress will transfer
substantially all equipment, process technologies, and personnel
associated with its SVTC business to the buyer. Cypress will remain an
important SVTC customer. “With SVTC, Cypress created a unique R&D business model
that turned a capital-intensive operation into a profit center and that
has enabled many novel silicon technologies to find their way from lab
to fab using the SVTC," said T.J. Rodgers, president and CEO of
Cypress. “With a recent shift in focus to a new mix of programmable
products and solutions, Cypress now has very few products requiring
‘bleeding-edge’ technology, leading us to conclude that we can do
R&D more cost-effectively as an SVTC customer than as an owner.”
“We believe SVTC plays a valuable role in the semiconductor
value chain. We are thrilled to provide resources that will allow
SVTC’s management to pursue their vision and provide a wider range of
services and technologies to the fabless semiconductor community,” said
J. Crandall, managing partner of Oak Hill.
“Historically, innovation in the fabless semiconductor
industry has been limited to device architecture and circuit design.
Going forward, we believe that new semiconductor materials, processes
and devices represent the new frontier in which rich innovation will
occur. SVTC possesses the unique talent and capabilities to enable
these new dimensions of innovation to come to fruition and makes them
available to the creativity of fabless semiconductor companies,” said
Luis Arzubi, general partner of Tallwood Venture Capital.
About SVTC
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, SVTC
offers startups and established companies the opportunity to develop
and characterize novel silicon-based technologies cost effectively
using a shared R&D environment. SVTC provides customers access to a
state-of-the-art manufacturing-like fab environment and semiconductor
toolset, allowing customers to bring their technologies to mass
production quickly and without a costly investment in equipment.
Cypress began selling access to its San Jose R&D fab in 2000 and
formalized this novel approach to semiconductor services by creating
SVTC in 2004. Over the years, the business grew to serve dozens of
customers ranging from starts-ups to large fabless semiconductor
companies. Visit us at svtc.com.
About Cypress
Cypress delivers high-performance,
mixed-signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with rapid
time-to-market and exceptional system value. Cypress offerings include
the PSoC Programmable System-on-Chip, USB controllers, general-purpose
programmable clocks and memories. Cypress also offers wired and
wireless connectivity solutions ranging from its WirelessUSB radio
system-on-chip, to West Bridge and EZ-USB FX2LP controllers that
enhance connectivity and performance in multimedia handsets. Cypress
serves numerous markets including consumer, computation, data
communications, automotive, industrial, and solar power. Cypress trades
on the NYSE under the ticker symbol CY. Visit Cypress online at
cypress.com.
About Oak Hill Capital Partners
Oak Hill Capital Partners
is a private equity firm with more than $4.6 billion of committed
capital from leading entrepreneurs, endowments, foundations,
corporations, pension funds and global financial institutions. Robert
M. Bass is the lead investor. Over a period of nearly 20 years, the
professionals at Oak Hill Capital Partners have invested in more than
50 significant private equity transactions. Oak Hill Capital Partners
is one of several Oak Hill partnerships, each of which has a dedicated
and independent management team. These Oak Hill partnerships comprise
over $20 billion of investment capital across multiple asset classes,
including private equity, special situations, high yield and bank debt,
venture capital, real assets, public equity and hedge funds. For more
information about Oak Hill, visit oakhillcapitol.com.
About Tallwood Venture Capital
Tallwood Venture Capital,
a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, invests exclusively in
semiconductor and semiconductor-related technologies. The principals of
Tallwood have deep, semiconductor experience that spans all aspects of
the semiconductor industry value chain. By offering broad semiconductor
knowledge, direct operating experience and a high degree of
availability, Tallwood Venture Capital builds close, active working
relationships with its portfolio companies. Its portfolio includes
Marvell (Nasdaq:MRVL) and SiRF (Nasdaq:SIRF). For more information on
Tallwood Venture Capital, visit tallwoodvc.com.
Statements made in this release that are not historical in
nature and that refer to Cypress or its subsidiaries’ plans and
expectations for the future are forward-looking statements made
pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our
actual results may differ materially due a variety of factors,
including our ability to close the proposed SVTC transaction as well as
those identified in our filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. All forward-looking statements included in this release are
based upon information available to Cypress as of the date of this
release, which may change, and we assume no obligation to update any
such forward-looking statement. We use words such as “anticipates,”
“believes,” “expects,” “future,” “look forward,” “planning,” “intends”
and similar expressions to identify such forward-looking statements.
Cypress and the Cypress logo are registered trademarks of
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. All other trademarks or registered
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
