10 June 2003 Camarillo, CA--Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation has announced a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding equity interests of Multilink Technology Corporation for approximately 4.2 million shares of Vitesse common stock.
Under the terms of the agreement, each outstanding share of Multilink common stock will be exchanged for 0.5493 shares of Vitesse common stock. Based on the closing price of Vitesse common stock on Friday, June 6, the deal is valued at approximately $22.9 million.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval by Multilink's stockholders. The transaction is anticipated to close in the third calendar quarter of 2003 and is not expected to be material to Vitesse's earnings (loss) per share. At the time of closing, Multilink is expected to have, net of liabilities and future commitments, approximately $8-12 million in cash.
It is also expected that by the time the transaction closes, Multilink will have reduced its workforce to approximately 45 employees, most of whom will be engaged in product development activities. Dr. Richard Nottenburg, Chairman, President & CEO of Multilink, will lead this team and will assume the position of Vice President of Backplane Products.
"The acquisition of Multilink brings not only a highly experienced team of system, mixed signal and digital design engineers that have successfully developed products for OC-192 transport, Forward Error Correction, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and high speed backplanes, but also a family of products already in production which would cost Vitesse more than the purchase price to reproduce," said Lou Tomasetta, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vitesse.
"I am also pleased that Rich Nottenburg will lead the product team, which will be augmented by existing Vitesse resources to expand our ongoing efforts in Ethernet, Fibre Channel and backplane physical layer products."
"The merger enables Multilink to leverage its valuable intellectual property and new product offerings for the Metro, Access and Enterprise markets within a diversified and proven product platform. Combining with Vitesse will drive greater value for our customers and shareholders and enable us to grow our business going forward," stated Dr. Nottenburg.