Sunnyvale and Fremont, Calif. - May 11, 2000 Actel Corporation /www.actel.com/ (Nasdaq: ACTL) and GateField Corporation /www.gatefield.com/ (OTCBB: GATE) today announced that they have signed a letter of intent to merge. In the merger, Actel will pay cash consideration of $5.25 for each share of GateField common stock. Actel expects the acquisition, which is subject to approval by GateField's stockholders, to close on June 30, 2000.
"We believe in GateField's ASIC-like ProASIC products and reprogrammable Flash technology," stated John East, president and CEO of Actel. "Producing a viable ProASIC product has been more challenging than anyone expected, but we feel combining the resources of both companies will get us there more quickly. The addition of GateField's products, technology and talent will also help us further our goal of becoming the complete programmable ASIC solutions company."
"This acquisition will give GateField stockholders a premium over the current market price and much desired liquidity," said Dr. Tim Saxe, president of GateField. "It also provides much needed funding not currently available to GateField for the continued development of a truly differentiated product technology."
Actel and GateField have been working jointly to develop and market the ProASIC line of ASIC-like, Flash-based FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) since August 1998. At that time, the two companies announced an exclusive strategic marketing agreement establishing Actel as the sole worldwide marketing and sales agent for ProASIC. Actel also took an equity position in GateField and acquired GateField's Protocol Design Services Group in Mt. Arlington, NJ. In May 1999, Actel provided GateField with additional operating capital in the form of an $8 million convertible promissory note, further increasing its equity interest in GateField. During the last year, Actel and GateField have increased their cooperative efforts to bring to market the current ProASIC offering and to define next-generation Flash FPGA technologies and products.