News & Events
Intersil Updates Fourth Quarter Outlook

IRVINE, Calif. — December 6, 2000 — Intersil Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a leading provider of silicon technology for wireless access and communications analog markets, today announced that it expects to meet analysts’ consensus estimates for fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share of 26 cents. The company expects revenues for the fourth quarter to be sequentially flat, approximately 5-percent below consensus expectations and a 38-percent improvement over the same quarter of the prior year.

"Progress toward our 50-percent gross margin goal is ahead of expectations due to ongoing cost reductions and our continuing shift towards wireless access. As a result, we anticipate record profits for the fourth quarter," said Intersil’s President and CEO Greg Williams. "As end market acceptance of our high-data-rate wireless LAN solutions continues to grow in the home and enterprise markets, we expect PRISM^® Wireless sales to approach 25-percent of total Intersil revenue this quarter."

"As mentioned in our third quarter conference call, bookings started to soften at the end of the third quarter as distributors adjusted their backlog to balance inventory levels," said Williams. "Sales of our analog products, sold primarily through distribution, are being impacted by continued softness in the channel. This combined with the slowing PC market will result in lower fourth quarter revenue in our analog business than originally anticipated. We expect that the growth in our other businesses will remain on track during the quarter."

2001 Outlook
As a result of continued softness in analog orders in the current quarter and expected seasonal weakness during the first quarter of 2001, the company expects revenue for the quarter ending March 2001 to be sequentially flat. Intersil expects PRISM Wireless revenues during the first quarter of 2001 to be flat to slightly higher, as certain OEMs complete their adjustment of inventory levels.

The company expects to resume sequential growth in the second quarter of 2001. During the second half of calendar year 2000, Intersil’s PRISM II and new four-chip PRISM 2.5 chip sets have been designed into 25 new products for the home and 28 new products for the enterprise. Revenue from the production ramp-up of these new applications is expected to drive this growth. Intersil expects overall 2001 revenue growth of 30-percent over calendar year 2000.

"We believe that this is a short term inventory correction and that the long term growth prospects for Intersil remain strong," added Williams. "We are well-positioned to achieve significant growth and higher margins as our product mix continues to shift towards wireless access. We believe that our strong customer relationships, expertise in wireless access and communications analog, and focus on rapidly expanding markets will provide Intersil with significant growth for many years to come."

About Intersil
Irvine, California-based Intersil is a leading supplier of semiconductors, reference designs and software for wireless access and communications markets. Intersil applies analog, mixed-signal and radio frequency (RF) expertise to products that enable wireless access to broadband media; provide reliable power management for PCs, files servers and portable information appliances; and convert analog and digital signals in cellular and Internet infrastructure. For more information about Intersil, visit the company's Internet homepage at www.intersil.com.

This press release contains statements 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 may include, among others, statements relating to (i) estimated or projected financial results, including projected earnings and revenues, (ii) business trends and market conditions generally and those specifically concerning the wireless access, communications analog and broadband wireless access markets and (iii) cost reduction efforts and their expected impact on gross margins. These forward-looking statements 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 Holding Corporation include, but are not limited to, the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil’s wireless access and communications analog technologies and products; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Intersil’s BWA 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 ("SEC") which you may obtain for free at the SEC’s website: www.sec.gov. 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 Holding Corporation.

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