AVR-Chat

Go to
http://www.atmel.com/corporate/
and select
"Oct 02, 2008 An Important Message from CEO Steven Laub"

This is that . . .

October 2, 2008

Dear Valued Customers and Business Partners,

I am writing to update you on recent news about Atmel.

This morning Atmel issued a release confirming that Atmel has received
a proposal from Microchip Technology Inc. and ON Semiconductor to
engage in negotiations for a three-way agreement to acquire Atmel at
$5.00 per share, subject to conditions, including the sale of assets,
due diligence, and financing.

Consistent with its fiduciary duties, Atmel’s Board of Directors will
carefully review and consider Microchip’s and ON Semiconductor’s
unsolicited proposal, with the assistance of its financial and legal
advisors. Certainly, we are committed to doing what is right for our
shareholders, customers, partners and employees.

In addition, I want to give you my personal assurance that this offer
will not distract Atmel from its operational and product commitments;
it is business as usual for all of us at Atmel. This means that we
will remain as focused as ever on achieving our business objectives
and providing you with the quality products and services that you have
come to expect from Atmel.

As you know, we have made significant progress in transforming our
company. Indeed, we believe Microchip Technology’s and ON
Semiconductor’s interest in Atmel is largely due to the strong product
portfolio, proprietary AVR architecture and leading technology
solutions that you enjoy as a valued Atmel customer and partner.

On behalf of the team at Atmel, we appreciate your business and thank
you for your continued support. If you have any questions on this
matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Steven Laub

President and Chief Executive Officer

A Oct 14, 2008 message is titled "Atmel, Cisco and the Swedish
Institute of Computer Science (SICS) Collaborate to Support a Future
Where Any Device Can Be Connected to the Internet" sure sounds like
Atmel is looking forward.

Mike Bronosky

--- In AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com, "stevech11" <stevech@...> wrote:
>
> Keep an eye on avrfreaks.net. Much more there than here.
> 
> --- In AVR-Chat@yahoogroups.com, Dave Miller <vici_dave@> wrote:
> >
> > Hello All,
> > 
> > Since I have not been using AVR's for a couple years I have just
> stayed subscribed to this list because I wanted to make sure I keep up
> with the latest AVR info.  
> > 
> > I was following the thread about the Microchip takeover attempt with
> great interest.  I am not a Microchip fan and don't feel this is in
> the best interest of Atmel.  But I also understand business and if you
> can't beat them buy them makes sense to me.  If the purchase does go
> through I would not start any new designs based on the AVR for awhile
> just to see what products are kept by Microchip and which are dropped.
> > 
> > Anyways I noticed this list seemed to go silent all of a sudden and
> I have not seen any new emails since Oct 8th.  When I go to the groups
> main page http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AVR-Chat/ it shows the
> last email was on Oct 8th as well so I don't think it is my email
> address.  So I just wanted to ping the list and see what happens and
> possibly start the discussion back up again about the merger attempt.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Dave  
> > 
> > 
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
> > http://mail.yahoo.com 
> > 
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>