Infineon to Acquire Catamaran Communications - Acquisition Fuels Infineon's Communications Strategy

Apr 30, 2001 | Business & Financial Press

Munich, April 30, 2001 – Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX), one of the world’s leading semiconductor companies, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Catamaran Communications Inc., San Jose, California, an emerging leader in integrated circuits for the next generation 40 Gbps and fast growing 10 Gbps segments of the optical networking market. Infineon will pay US$ 250 million in common stock in connection with the acquisition.

”With this acquisition we are executing further on our strategy to strengthen Infineon’s leadership in communications,” explained Dr. Ulrich Schumacher, President and CEO of Infineon Technologies. ”Combining our communications expertise with that of Catamaran will give us a competitive advantage in the fast growing optical networking market and a leading position in the high speed line card segment at speeds of 40 Gbps and beyond.”

Together with Catamaran, Infineon will have a complete line card solution, from the optics to the network processor interface. As the first company to offer this range of capabilities at 40 Gbps, the combined entity will be optimally positioned to contend for global market leadership. With the emergence of the optical transponder concept driving the convergence of the optical and IC technologies, strong synergies exist between Infineon’s fiber optics and high-speed communications solutions and Catamaran’s innovative synchronous digital hierarchy / synchronous optical network (SDH / SONET) and 10G ethernet ICs. These devices together form the core of the complete end-to-end solutions for next generation optical networking systems.

The optical network IC market is forecasted to grow at an overall CAGR of 45 percent over the next four years, and is expected to reach annual sales of US$16.17 billion by 2004, according to Cahners In-Stat group. Catamaran’s multi channel 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps framer / mapper as well as 10 Gbps ethernet digital wrapper products are positioned to address the fastest growing segments of these markets, including the emerging metropolitian area network (MAN) application.

“Infineon and Catamaran share a common vision of the need to deliver high performance solutions that allow customers to bring leading edge communications systems to market in a timely manner,” said Subodh Toprani, President and CEO of Catamaran Communications. “The complementary strengths of the two companies will provide true value to our customers by making more complete solutions available and supported worldwide.”

Founded in November 1999 by Venkat Vankayalapati, Chief Technology Officer, Catamaran Communications is a Silicon Valley based fabless communications semiconductor company focused on OC-768 (40 Gbps) and OC-192 (10 Gbps) SDH / SONET solutions. Catamaran’s mission is to be the premier supplier of system silicon solutions for high speed multi service optical networking systems. Catamaran has over 50 employees with a core competence in SDH / SONET, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), time division multiplexing (TDM), packet over SONET (PoS), and ethernet, along with the capability to develop very large scale integration (VLSI) devices and system reference board designs. The company‘s products are targeted at the high-growth markets of terabit routers, add drop multiplexers (ADMs), dense wave division multiplexers (DWDMs), and digital cross connects (DCS). Catamaran’s investors include Telesoft Partners and Redwood Ventures. Telesoft's investments include Cerent, Promatory and VxTel, and Redwood's portfolio includes Cyras, SwitchOn Networks and Stratum One.

Subject to approval by the relevant authorities, Catamaran will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Infineon. This will allow it to maintain its start-up approach, while capitalizing on the synergies with Infineon’s existing wide area network (WAN), fiber optic and high-speed communication business units, as well as benefiting from Infineon’s worldwide sales channels and global presence.


About Infineon


Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smartcards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 2000 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 7.28 billion with about 29,000 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.


This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. These statements and all other statements that are not historical facts, are subject to factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Infineon and Catamaran. The forward-looking statements in this release address a variety of subjects including, for example, the expected closing of the acquisition and the potential benefits of the acquisition. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements: the integration of Catamarn’s and Infineon’s business; costs associated with the acquisition; the successful completion of the acquisition; including applicable regulatory requirements relating to the transaction; increased competition and technological changes in the industries in which Catamaran and Infineon operate. For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please, refer to Infineon’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Information Number

INFXX200104.075e