Cyanconnode Regulatory News (CYAN)

8 Feb 2007 07:00

Cyan Holdings Plc08 February 2007 Press Release 8 February 2007 Cyan Holdings Plc ("Cyan" or "the Company") Cyan to expand MCU sales & technical support in Europe Spectrum Group appointed to help drive the development of Cyan's European business Cyan Holdings Plc (AIM: CYAN.L), the fabless semiconductor company specialisingin the development of low power consumption, configurable microcontroller chips,is pleased to announce the appointment of Spectrum Group of independent sales,marketing and operations (ISMO) organisations to assist the Company in thedevelopment of its business across Europe. The move will help Cyan inparticular to expand its links with key European OEMs and capitalise from therecent launch of its new eCOG1X microcontroller in February 2007. Initially,the agreement will span the UK, France, Scandinavia, Benelux, Italy and Spain.European design engineers looking to capitalise on the advantages of Cyan'smicrocontroller technology and development tools in their designs will be ableto benefit from Spectrum's technical expertise and localised sales support. According to Paul Barwick, Sales Director, Cyan Technology, Spectrum's uniquebusiness model and proven strength in market demand creation is ideally suitedto Cyan's growth objectives for Europe: "The Spectrum Group enjoys strongrelationships with the major European brand names in the consumer, industrialand automotive markets and is responsible for annual sales in excess of US$250million. The new partnership puts us in a very strong position to grow thebusiness in Europe and drive sales of our new eCOG1X microcontroller family.The partnership with the Spectrum Group enables Cyan to provide a high quality,technically qualified local sales presence in every major European territory." "Cyan's new product families, including the eCOG1X family and CyanIDEdevelopment toolset, deliver innovative, peripheral-rich, embedded controlsolutions, which offer OEMs significant price and performance advantages," saidDick Skipworth, Spectrum investor and founder of the former Memec electronicsgroup that he grew to a multibillion dollar global distribution company that waseventually acquired by Avnet, the worlds largest distributor of electronicscomponents. "The 16-bit products feature capabilities comparable with many32-bit microcontrollers for embedded communications but are easier to use,feature ultra-low power consumption and require considerably less developmenttime." Commenting on the announcement Spectrum Group's Managing Director Nigel Wattssaid: "We are delighted that the advantages of our ISMO business model havebeen recognised by Cyan and are looking forward to working closely with theCompany and its distribution partners. I'm confident in our ability to addsignificant value to Cyan's European business and deliver further benefits toits already strong customer base in this region." - Ends- For further information:Cyan Holdings plcAndrew Lee, Finance Director Tel: +44 (0) 1954 234 400 www.cyantechnology.comCollins Stewart LimitedSimon Atkinson, Corporate Finance Tel: +44 (0) 20 7523 8312SAtkinson@collins-stewart.com www.collins-stewart.com Media enquiries:Abchurch CommunicationsHeather Salmond/Franziska Boehnke Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700franziska.boehnke@abchurch-group.com www.abchurch-group.com About Cyan Technology Cyan Holdings plc is a fabless semiconductor company which specialises in thedesign, sale and support of a range of 16-bit and 32-bit general-purpose lowpower, high performance microcontroller chips ("MCUs"). These chips are integralcomponents used in nearly all electronic products, ranging from mobile phonesand washing machines to toys, televisions and motorcars. Consumer entertainmentmarkets require more powerful processors and are usually based on 32-bit chipswhich Cyan is developing to serve this market segment. Cyan operates in a $14billion worldwide market for microcontrollers, which is poised to grow to $20billion by 2010. Cyan has identified Europe and South East Asia as the largestmarkets for its products, and as such aims to have 1% of the microcontrollermarket within 5 years. Originally Cyan was a spin out from Cambridge Consultants Limited to use its16-bit core, the same core used in CSR's Bluetooth chips. Since Cyan was foundedin 2002, it achieved over 100 design wins during 2006 for its initial eCOG1kproduct and is expanding the range of the patent-protected eCOG1 family andintroducing a new range of 32 bit microcontrollers. Volume shipments on theeCOG1k processor started in 2006 and the eCOG1X family of 30 products will beavailable to ship in volume in Q2 2007. Cyan has already established, through acustomer in China, a significant share of the huge China Tax Control POSTerminal market. Also Cyan has a high volume opportunity with a tier 1 globalbrand name for its new eCOG1X chip. Cyan has introduced design integration support software, CyanIDE, to support theCompany's entire range of current and future microcontrollers. The softwaremakes chip integration into customers' products vastly more simple, quick,reliable and hence less expensive while dramatically reducing time to market forour customers. Cyan created CyanIDE to avoid relying on costly standard toolsfrom third party suppliers. CyanIDE is available free of charge to ourcustomers. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, UK and opened a sales and technicalsupport office in Hong Kong in May 2005 which services the Chinese market. Cyanemploys 40 people. Cyan Holdings plc is listed on the Alternative Investment Market on the LondonStock Exchange, symbol CYAN.L www.cyantechnology.com About the Spectrum Electronics Group. Founded in 1994, the Spectrum Electronics Group applies its unique independentsales, marketing and operations (ISMO) business model on behalf of 32manufacturers of advanced electronic technology in 25 European countries. TheGroup currently employs some 52 people operating out of 11 European officeswww.spectrumeugroup.com Sales contact Paul Barwick, Cyan Technology Ltd, Buckingway Business Park, Swavesey,Cambridge, CB4 5UQ UK Tel: +44 (0)1954 234400 sales@cyantechnology.com Editorial enquiries For Cyan: Chris King, EML +44 (0)20 8408 8000 or cyan@eml.com For Spectrum: Nigel Watts, Managing Director, Spectrum Electronics Group+44 (0)7785 398392 email nigel@spectrumeugroup.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange