Intersil Acquires BitBlitz

MILPITAS, Calif. -- Intersil Corporation (Nasdaq:ISIL - News), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog semiconductors, today announced the acquisition of a substantial portion of the assets of BitBlitz Communications of Milpitas, California. BitBlitz will become part of Intersil's Elantec Products Group.

BitBlitz, a privately held, venture-funded company, provides high-speed serializer-deserializers (SerDes), retimers and transponders to the networking industry. Since its founding in 1999, BitBlitz has developed substantial intellectual property focused on high-performance serial communication ICs for applications such as 10 gigabit Ethernet, SONET, storage area networks and other high-speed datalinks. BitBlitz' innovative architectures have pushed the standard CMOS process to extremely high-speed while achieving unprecedented low power.

"This acquisition will provide Intersil with valuable IP and a very experienced engineering staff enabling us to expand our presence in high performance analog communications," said Mohan Maheswaran, vice president and general manager of Intersil's Elantec Products Group. "The BitBlitz IP portfolio is the result of over four years of extensive engineering effort and significant R&D investment, and includes high bandwidth serializer-deserializer (SerDes) clock data recovery along with phased lock loop IP. Combining BitBlitz' technology with Intersil's industry leading design expertise and marketing presence should produce immediate benefits."

Mr. Maheswaran continued: "First, we see opportunities to leverage BitBlitz' products through Intersil's sales channels and build a greater presence with customers. Second, we believe by incorporating BitBlitz' technology, we can increase the value of certain of Intersil's existing products for markets we currently address. Third, the addition of BitBlitz opens the door and can accelerate Intersil's entry into new and exciting application areas we've been evaluating."

In connection with the acquisition, Intersil paid BitBlitz $2.5 million in cash. In addition, Intersil has agreed to pay contingent consideration of up to $5 million if certain performance milestones are met in 2004 and 2005.

Intersil Corp. (Nasdaq: ISIL)