Press Releases
Intersil Holding Corporation Announces Second Quarter Earnings

— Reports strong orders, sales and operating income growth

PALM BAY, FL. — January 25, 2000 — Intersil Holding Corporation today reported strong financial results for its second fiscal quarter, ended December 31, 1999. Orders for the second quarter of fiscal 2000 were up 47%, compared to the same period in the prior year, sales were up 27% to $158 million and operating income improved to $14.5 million from $3.4 million. When compared to the previous quarter, orders grew 17%, sales grew 18% and operating income grew 93%.

"We achieved excellent results in our second fiscal quarter," said Greg Williams, president and chief executive officer. "We completed the first half of our fiscal year with strong results across the board. We saw strong demand for our wireless chip sets and power management products, in particular, and experienced strong market acceptance of several new integrated communications products which were introduced during Intersil’s first two quarters."

Williams cited strong sales of Intersil’s PRISM^® Wireless Products — up 198% from the same quarter of fiscal 1999. "Demand for our wireless LAN chip sets has been tremendous and we continue to see widespread adoption of PRISM by industry leaders in the emerging wireless networking market. Our PRISM customers include communications industry leaders such as 3Com, Cisco/Aironet, Compaq, Nokia, Nortel, Samsung, Siemens and Zoom Telephonics."

Intersil’s Analog & Mixed-Signal Products business reported sales growth of 9% over the second quarter of fiscal 1999 to $94 million. "We experienced good orders and sales growth from many integrated communications products in our analog business unit," added Williams. "We successfully launched several new products tailored for the advanced power management demands of AMD’s Athlon™ and Intel’s next-generation microprocessors. We also announced our intentions to extend our leadership in desktop power management to laptops through a co-development agreement with Fairchild Semiconductor on power ICs."

When compared to the same quarter of fiscal 1999, Intersil’s Power Products business reported sales growth of 58% to $55 million. "Market acceptance of our new power products has been very good," said Williams. "We realized particularly strong market acceptance of our low voltage MOSFETs and IGBTs, and plan to introduce several new products to address the power management requirements of cellular phones, portable communications equipment and laptop PCs."

Intersil also reported a three-point improvement in gross margins over the first quarter of fiscal 2000. "Intersil is not only seeing strong orders and sales growth, but we’re realizing benefits from cost reductions started in 1999 that have had a positive impact on our gross margins," adds Williams. "Product pricing continues to firm as we launch new products that are being widely accepted in their target markets. I’m very proud of the entire Intersil team and the progress we’ve made since we emerged as a new company."

About Intersil
Intersil uses 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 forward-looking statements made in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current assumptions and estimates of future performance and economic conditions. Specific risks include worldwide demand and product pricing for integrated circuits; general economic conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address; reductions in the U.S. and worldwide defense and space budgets; and other factors. In addition, Intersil cautions investors that any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and future trends and events to differ materially from those matters expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements.

PRISM is a registered trademark of Intersil Corporation.
Athlon is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.