Appointment Spectrum Group
Cyan Holdings Plc
08 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 specialising
in 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 the
development of its business across Europe. The move will help Cyan in
particular to expand its links with key European OEMs and capitalise from the
recent 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's
microcontroller technology and development tools in their designs will be able
to benefit from Spectrum's technical expertise and localised sales support.
According to Paul Barwick, Sales Director, Cyan Technology, Spectrum's unique
business model and proven strength in market demand creation is ideally suited
to Cyan's growth objectives for Europe: 'The Spectrum Group enjoys strong
relationships with the major European brand names in the consumer, industrial
and automotive markets and is responsible for annual sales in excess of US$250
million. The new partnership puts us in a very strong position to grow the
business 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 CyanIDE
development toolset, deliver innovative, peripheral-rich, embedded control
solutions, which offer OEMs significant price and performance advantages,' said
Dick Skipworth, Spectrum investor and founder of the former Memec electronics
group that he grew to a multibillion dollar global distribution company that was
eventually acquired by Avnet, the worlds largest distributor of electronics
components. 'The 16-bit products feature capabilities comparable with many
32-bit microcontrollers for embedded communications but are easier to use,
feature ultra-low power consumption and require considerably less development
time.'
Commenting on the announcement Spectrum Group's Managing Director Nigel Watts
said: 'We are delighted that the advantages of our ISMO business model have
been recognised by Cyan and are looking forward to working closely with the
Company and its distribution partners. I'm confident in our ability to add
significant value to Cyan's European business and deliver further benefits to
its already strong customer base in this region.'
- Ends-
For further information:
Cyan Holdings plc
Andrew Lee, Finance Director Tel: +44 (0) 1954 234 400
www.cyantechnology.com
Collins Stewart Limited
Simon Atkinson, Corporate Finance Tel: +44 (0) 20 7523 8312
SAtkinson@collins-stewart.com www.collins-stewart.com
Media enquiries:
Abchurch Communications
Heather Salmond/Franziska Boehnke Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700
franziska.boehnke@abchurch-group.com www.abchurch-group.com
About Cyan Technology
Cyan Holdings plc is a fabless semiconductor company which specialises in the
design, sale and support of a range of 16-bit and 32-bit general-purpose low
power, high performance microcontroller chips ('MCUs'). These chips are integral
components used in nearly all electronic products, ranging from mobile phones
and washing machines to toys, televisions and motorcars. Consumer entertainment
markets require more powerful processors and are usually based on 32-bit chips
which Cyan is developing to serve this market segment. Cyan operates in a $14
billion worldwide market for microcontrollers, which is poised to grow to $20
billion by 2010. Cyan has identified Europe and South East Asia as the largest
markets for its products, and as such aims to have 1% of the microcontroller
market within 5 years.
Originally Cyan was a spin out from Cambridge Consultants Limited to use its
16-bit core, the same core used in CSR's Bluetooth chips. Since Cyan was founded
in 2002, it achieved over 100 design wins during 2006 for its initial eCOG1k
product and is expanding the range of the patent-protected eCOG1 family and
introducing a new range of 32 bit microcontrollers. Volume shipments on the
eCOG1k processor started in 2006 and the eCOG1X family of 30 products will be
available to ship in volume in Q2 2007. Cyan has already established, through a
customer in China, a significant share of the huge China Tax Control POS
Terminal market. Also Cyan has a high volume opportunity with a tier 1 global
brand name for its new eCOG1X chip.
Cyan has introduced design integration support software, CyanIDE, to support the
Company's entire range of current and future microcontrollers. The software
makes chip integration into customers' products vastly more simple, quick,
reliable and hence less expensive while dramatically reducing time to market for
our customers. Cyan created CyanIDE to avoid relying on costly standard tools
from third party suppliers. CyanIDE is available free of charge to our
customers.
The company is headquartered in Cambridge, UK and opened a sales and technical
support office in Hong Kong in May 2005 which services the Chinese market. Cyan
employs 40 people.
Cyan Holdings plc is listed on the Alternative Investment Market on the London
Stock Exchange, symbol CYAN.L
www.cyantechnology.com
About the Spectrum Electronics Group.
Founded in 1994, the Spectrum Electronics Group applies its unique independent
sales, marketing and operations (ISMO) business model on behalf of 32
manufacturers of advanced electronic technology in 25 European countries. The
Group currently employs some 52 people operating out of 11 European offices
www.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