Altera Announces First Quarter Results; Sales up 10% Sequentially

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2005--Altera Corporation (Nasdaq:ALTR) today announced first quarter 2005 sales of $264.8 million, up 10% from the fourth quarter of 2004 and up 9% from the first quarter of 2004. Sales of the company's new products grew 16% sequentially and were up 96% from the prior year's first quarter.

First quarter net income was $63.8 million, $0.17 per diluted share, compared to net income of $58.8 million, $0.15 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2004. Gross profit margin was 68.3% for the first quarter of 2005 versus 68.8% for the first quarter of 2004.

Altera repurchased 2.3 million shares of its common stock during the quarter at a cost of $43.4 million. Altera's tax rate for the first quarter was 20%, in line with the company's expected annual tax rate for 2005, and 1% lower than prior guidance. Altera ended the quarter with $1.2 billion in cash and short-term investments.

"Stratix(R) II FPGA revenues more than doubled sequentially and this family remains, by a wide margin, the best selling high-density FPGA for customers in the development phase today. This success builds on the market-leading position we previously established with our high-density Stratix and low-cost Cyclone(TM) families," said John Daane, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board. "We believe that the peak revenues for Cyclone and Stratix devices are still well ahead of us and that our overall competitive position for securing design wins at the leading edge is increasing with the Stratix II and Cyclone II families. On the CPLD side of our business, the MAX(R) II family is now completely rolled out. We expect that this family, with its innovative low-cost architecture, will further expand our position as the world's leader in CPLDs."

Altera's innovation and execution made the company the fastest growing programmable logic company in 2004. The track record of innovation and execution continues in 2005:

-- Introduced in 2004 as the market's first high-density 90-nm FPGA, the Stratix II family remains the best selling FPGA in its class. To fully optimize the potential advantages of 90-nm production, the Stratix II family introduced the unique adaptive logic module (ALM) architecture. This highly efficient architecture produces significant performance gains compared to the traditional approach used by others in the industry and also allows designers to pack more functionality into less die area. The combination of the ALM's performance and density advantages, the Stratix II family's ready availability, and Altera's leading market share at the prior 130-nm node all contribute to the Stratix II family's number one position in high-density 90-nm FPGAs. Further, in cases where customer production economics dictate the use of a lower cost non-programmable device, Stratix II devices can be migrated into an Altera HardCopy(R) II structured ASIC. The 90-nm-based HardCopy II family provides a fast and seamless migration path from the Stratix II FPGA to a lower cost device with even higher performance and lower power consumption. Combined, the HardCopy II and Stratix II families create greater competitive strength for Stratix II devices and, through the ability to migrate to HardCopy II structured ASICs, expand Altera's market opportunity into applications not served by other programmable device companies.

-- In just over two years since its introduction, Altera's Cyclone family of low-cost FPGAs has shipped more than 10 million units. Cyclone devices reached this milestone faster than any other product family in the programmable logic industry. In designing the Cyclone family, Altera broke with industry tradition and did not reuse an existing architecture to create a low-cost family. The Cyclone FPGA family was instead designed from the ground up to deliver low cost. In addition, the company chose to launch the family using a high-yielding, low-cost 130-nm process. The combination of an innovative architecture and high yields delivered a large performance advantage, easy availability, and Cyclone family lifetime revenues that are several times larger than competing alternatives. Earlier this year, the 90-nm-based Cyclone II family began shipping, offering customers three times higher densities, more features, and even lower costs than the original Cyclone family, expanding the opportunity for Cyclone devices across a wider set of high-volume, cost-sensitive applications.

-- With the arrival of the production-qualified EPM1270 device, Altera has completed the rollout of its MAX II CPLD family. Altera, the leader in CPLDs, broke new ground with MAX II devices by taking a look-up-table-based approach to CPLD architecture, giving the MAX II family the industry's lowest cost, highest density, and best performance. Recent benchmarking studies substantiate that MAX II devices outperform comparable competitive offerings by 50 to 80%. The MAX II cost, density, and performance advantages give Altera not only competitive strength in traditional CPLD applications, but also enable Altera to pursue growth opportunities beyond the range served by typical CPLDs.

Conference Call and Quarterly Update

A conference call will be held today at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the quarter's results and management's outlook for the second quarter of 2005. The web cast and subsequent replay will be available in the investor relations section of the company's web site at http://www.altera.com. A telephonic replay of the call may be accessed later in the day by calling 719-457-0820 and referencing confirmation code 258712. The telephonic replay will be available for two weeks following the live call.

Altera's second quarter business update will be issued in a press release available after the market close on May 31.

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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.

Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, the stylized Altera logo, specific device designations and all other words that are identified as trademarks and/or service marks are, unless noted otherwise, the trademarks and service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other product or service names are the property of their respective holder.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not historical are "forward-looking statements" as the term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally written in the future tense and/or preceded by words such as "will", "believe", "expect", or words that imply or predict a future state. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty that can cause actual results to differ from those currently anticipated, due to a number of factors, including without limitation, customer business environment, market acceptance of the company's products, the rate of growth of the company's new products including the Stratix, Stratix II, Cyclone, Cyclone II, MAX II, and HardCopy II device families, the rate at which our customers' new platforms enter production, as well as changing economic conditions, and other risk factors discussed in documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Copies of Altera's SEC filings are posted on the company's web site and are available from the company without charge. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and, except as required by law, the company does not undertake an obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

SOURCE: Altera Corporation