For Release: July 28, 2005
Altera Comments on Relationship with Wells Fargo Securities
San Jose, Calif., July 28, 2005----Altera Corporation today released the following statement from Nathan Sarkisian, the company’s chief financial officer:
“In March, I informed Mr. A.A. (Tad) LaFountain, III, semiconductor securities analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, that I, our CEO, and our investor relations staff would no longer continue dialogue with him. I took this action because, in my view, we were having unproductive conversations on a topic for which we had irreconcilable differences. Consequently, on July 26, Mr. LaFountain chose to drop Altera coverage. Regrettably, as a result of our action and the ensuing press coverage, some have concluded that our intention was to manipulate opinion. In retrospect, our decision to disengage was in error, and I apologize to Mr. LaFountain, our investors, and the investment community.
“We have never discontinued relations or challenged an analyst because of a rating. The core of our differences with Mr. LaFountain is our share repurchase program which he asserts has destroyed shareholder value. We implemented our share repurchase program in 1996, and at that time our market capitalization was $1.2 billion. The program has since returned $1.5 billion in cash to shareholders - more than their starting investment, and today the company is valued at $8.1 billion. We remain firmly committed to our share repurchase program.
“Simply stated, our commitments going forward are:
- Wall Street analysts who cover Altera will have access to management.
- We will continue to strive to operate our business and investor relations program on a best-practice basis.”
About Altera
Altera Corporation (Nasdaq:ALTR) is the world's pioneer of system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions. Combining programmable logic technology with software tools, intellectual property, and technical services, Altera provides high-value programmable solutions to approximately 14,000 customers worldwide. More information is available at http://www.altera.com.
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