News & Events
Intersil Announces Another Record Quarter

— Orders increase 71%, revenues expand 27% over 1999
—PRISM^® Wireless revenues grow 238% over same quarter prior year
— Gross margins advance 260 basis points sequentially
— Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) at $ 0.17, up 143% sequentially
— Acquisition of No Wires Needed completed
— Multi-year assembly and test agreement closed with ChipPAC

IRVINE, Calif. — July 20, 2000 — Intersil Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL) today reported record financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter, ended June 30, 2000. Compared to the same period in the prior year, orders were up 71% and sales grew 27% to $191.2 million. When compared to the previous quarter, orders and sales grew 20% and 12%, respectively. Adjusted net income, which is net income before amortization of acquisition-related intangibles and one-time charges, was $16.8 million or $0.17 per diluted share of common stock.

"Our revenue and profit growth demonstrates that our integrated communications strategy is working," said Greg Williams, president and chief executive officer. "Our better than expected results were due to extraordinary demand for our wireless chip sets. We also realized strong demand for analog/mixed-signal integrated circuits targeted for the integrated communications market. Revenues from integrated communications products grew 22% from the previous quarter and now represent 53% of our total sales. This continuing shift towards integrated communications also helped us improve our gross margins by 260 basis points over the previous quarter to 43.2%."

During the same period, Intersil successfully completed its acquisition of No Wires Needed B.V., a Netherlands-based wireless local area network (WLAN) solutions provider, giving Intersil additional design and software capabilities as well as a clear path to 54 Megabit-per-second wireless solutions. While taking a one-time, non-cash charge, Intersil also completed a multi-year supply agreement with ChipPAC for advanced semiconductor packaging and test services that helps improve operating margins.

PRISM^® Wireless Products
Intersil’s PRISM Wireless Product sales grew 238% from the same quarter in 1999 and were up 51% from the previous quarter to $21.6 million. Further demonstrating Intersil’s industry-leading position in high-data-rate wireless networks, PRISM orders soared 651% over the same quarter last year.

"Demand for PRISM is strong across all market segments and we’re seeing further widespread adoption of our wireless solutions in everything from residential gateways to products for the enterprise to hand-held Internet appliances," said Williams. "As wireless markets expand, we expect to keep winning new designs for innovative products that give people wireless access to broadband communications within the home, small office and enterprise. We’re particularly excited that PRISM was selected for several new customer products, including a wireless-to-DSL product for DSL leader Alcatel and an easy-to-configure wireless-to-USB product for Siemens. These products are merely the first of many that will give families wireless access to broadband media services within the home. What’s equally exciting is that PRISM has been endorsed by Transmeta Corporation as the wireless networking interface for a new generation of Crusoe™ Microprocessor-equipped Internet appliances that put the power of high-speed networking in the palm of your hand."

Analog & Mixed-Signal Products
Intersil’s Analog & Mixed-Signal Products business produced sales of $116.6 million during the quarter, resulting in growth of 19% when compared with the same period in 1999, and also advanced 13% sequentially. Orders increased 48% over the same period last year.

"Robust demand for our analog & mixed-signal products aimed at integrated communications continued throughout the quarter," said Williams. "We realized record shipments of our popular multiphase controller ICs that manage power in next-generation Intel and AMD microprocessors. We expect that demand to increase as manufacturers ramp up production of 800 MHz and faster PCs in advance of the upcoming holiday season. We also achieved several customer design wins for communication ICs targeted for the emerging Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) market, including new products from Integral Access and Copper Mountain Networks."

Discrete Power Products
When compared to the same quarter of fiscal 1999, Intersil’s Discrete Power Products business reported sales growth of 15% to $53.0 million, while orders increased 30%.

"Strong market acceptance continues for our power products which are tailored for PCs and servers," added Williams, "and we are now sampling our new Dense Trench™ MOSFETs for cell phones and other portable information appliances. Sequential revenue was flat this quarter, but we expect demand for discrete power products to improve as a result of increased demand for our low voltage MOSFETs and our SMPS IGBTs. Intersil now has more than 50 customer design wins for our fast SMPS IGBTs that replace competitors’ MOSFETs in power management systems. We believe that Intersil is the only company in the world with industry-leading Dense Trench&3153; MOSFETs manufactured on eight-inch wafers, featuring superior value and performance."

Business Outlook
Recently, Intersil filed an 8K with the Securities and Exchange Commission that enables the Company to report on a calendar fiscal year basis commencing July 1, 2000.

"Intersil’s focused strategy on the integrated communications market is working," said Williams. "As a result, we anticipate solid sequential growth in revenues, gross margins and earnings per share during the third calendar quarter. Given our strong backlog and new customer design wins entering production, we now expect revenue to grow approximately 55% over the comparable quarter last year. For the calendar year, we expect revenues to increase by more than 35% over 1999 to roughly $790 million. This is an increase of nearly $100 million from our last report in April."

For individuals interested in hearing a more detailed analysis of the Company’s performance during the quarter, a conference call will be held on July 20 at 4:30 PM Eastern. If you would like to participate, please dial (800) 946-0712 and provide the operator with identification number 930036 to be connected.

About Intersil
Irvine, California-based Intersil uses its semiconductor expertise to enable highly integrated voice, data and video communications. Intersil's integrated communications portfolio includes PRISM^® Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) chip sets that enable mobile connectivity products for the home and office; analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for broadband access to wireless and wired Wide Area Networks (WANs); and power management products that enable 24X7 reliability in network servers, next generation PCs and information appliances. For more information about Intersil, visit the Company’s Internet homepage at www.intersil.com.

This press release contains information relating to certain projections and business trends that are forward looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward looking statements are based upon management’s current expectations, estimates, beliefs, assumptions, and projections about our business and industry. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will" and variations of these words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward looking statements. These forward looking statements about certain business and market trends are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward looking statements as a result of various risk factors. Important risk factors that may cause such material differences for Intersil in connection with the wireless, analog and mixed signal, and discrete power markets include, but are not limited to, the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Internal’s wireless, analog and mixed signal, and discrete power technologies and products; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders; the loss of a key customer; the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; silicon wafer pricing and the availability of foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; intellectual property disputes; as well as other risk factors detailed from time to time in Intersil’s filings with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. These forward looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and Intersil undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward looking statements.

PRISM is a registered trademark of Intersil Corporation.
Dense Trench is a trademark of Intersil Corporation.
Crusoe is a trademark of Transmeta Corporation.

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