Conexant Acquires Zarlink's Packet Switching Business

Business Wire, Oct 25, 2006

Strategic Investment Strengthens Market-Leading Broadband Access Technology Portfolio

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Conexant Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CNXT), a worldwide leader in semiconductor solutions for broadband communications and the digital home, today announced that it has acquired Zarlink Semiconductor's packet switching business in a $5 million all-cash transaction. Zarlink's packet switching product line includes a range of Fast Ethernet aggregation switches for network access equipment, and is complementary to Conexant's DSL central office (CO) product offering.

"The acquisition of Zarlink's packet switching business allows us to further strengthen our DSL technology portfolio and market-leading presence in broadband access markets," said Akram Atallah, senior vice president and general manager of Conexant's Broadband Access business. "Zarlink's digital switching logic technology is synergistic with our DSL central office product offering, and provides for non-blocking VDSL line card performance. Integrating our respective technologies will enable us to build on our solid foundation in access markets, and provides us with the opportunity to expand the product line into adjacent areas."

Zarlink's packet switch core engineering team has produced six generations of packet switches and management software over the past seven years and has 40 patents and patents-pending relevant to the business. Their team of highly experienced digital switching logic engineers is now a part of Conexant's Broadband Access group, and will be based in the company's headquarters in Newport Beach.

Conexant is the No. 1 provider of DSL semiconductor solutions, and has shipped more than 150 million DSL ports. The company's CO DSL solutions have been deployed worldwide by over 50 major service providers. Customer premises equipment (CPE) and CO semiconductor solutions include a full range of standards-based integrated circuits, software and reference designs for asymmetric and symmetric DSL applications including ADSL2plus, SHDSL and VDSL2. Fiber access solutions include the Xenon family of products for PON applications.

About Conexant

Conexant's innovative semiconductor solutions are driving broadband communications and digital home networks worldwide. The company has leveraged its expertise and leadership position in modem technologies to enable more Internet connections than all of its competitors combined, and continues to develop highly integrated silicon solutions for broadband data and media processing networks.

Key products include client-side xDSL and cable modem solutions, home network processors, broadcast video encoders and decoders, digital set-top box components and systems solutions, and dial-up modems. Conexant's suite of networking components includes a leadership portfolio of IEEE 802.11-compliant WLAN chipsets, software and reference designs, as well as solutions for applications based on HomePlug([R]) and HomePNA([TM]). The company also offers a complete line of asymmetric and symmetric DSL central office solutions, which are used by service providers worldwide to deliver broadband data, voice, and video over copper telephone lines.

Conexant is a fabless semiconductor company with an annual revenue run-rate in excess of $1 billion. The company has approximately 2,800 employees worldwide, and is headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif. To learn more, please visit www.conexant.com.

Safe Harbor

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release includes forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as Conexant or its management "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "foresees," "forecasts," "estimates" or other words or phrases of similar import. Similarly, statements in this release that describe our business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions or goals also are forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements.

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