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Press Room
Cree and Arrow Electronics Sign Distribution Agreement to Drive Global Adoption of High-Power LEDs
DURHAM, NC, NOVEMBER 2, 2006 — Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a leader in LED solid-state lighting components, announced today a global distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE: ARW) to sell and support Cree XLamp® products worldwide. The agreement gives Arrow’s over 130,000 customers ready access to Cree’s latest commercially available technology and a growing family of XLamp products. It also gives Cree’s customers access to one of the world’s largest and most efficient distributor supply chains. Together, Cree and Arrow intend to accelerate the adoption of solid-state lighting globally by providing superior high-power packaged LED products and services to designers and manufacturers of lighting products.
The agreement positions Cree as a premium LED vendor to Arrow Electronics’ thousands of customer-facing field representatives, applications engineers and technicians in 290 locations throughout the world. Arrow Electronics gains the ability to offer its customers Cree XLamp products, some of the brightest and most efficient high-power LEDs on the market today. Among the Cree products available through Arrow will be the recently released XLamp 7090 XR-E Series LED, the first 160-lumen white power LED and first power LED that is as efficient as fluorescent sources.
Arrow’s new Lighting Group will support customer design and development activities. Staffed with regional lighting specialists and lighting applications engineers, the new Lighting Group will provide full system solutions support for optical, thermal, and control electronics design.
“Offering Cree’s world-class technology and ground-breaking innovations further demonstrates our commitment to helping our customers accelerate time to market in designing high-brightness and power LED lighting solutions,” said Bob Sagebiel, director of lighting business development, Arrow Electronics. “Our customers are at the leading edge of LED lighting designs and this agreement allows them broader access to the products and support they need.”
“Arrow Electronics represents the first global lighting distribution agreement Cree has awarded and a milestone in our strategy to grow global sales, marketing and distribution capabilities,” stated Bob Pollock, Cree senior vice president, sales. “With this agreement, Cree is aligning itself with one of the top electronic components distributors in the world and its large base of customers to drive the LED lighting revolution.”
Additional information about accessing Cree products through Arrow Electronics may be obtained by calling 1-888-9LIGHT1 (1-888-954-4481) or by email at lightingsolutions@arrow.com.
About Arrow Electronics
Arrow Electronics is a major global provider of products, services and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and computer products. Headquartered in Melville, N.Y., Arrow serves as a supply channel partner for nearly 600 suppliers and more than 130,000 original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers and commercial customers through a global network of more than 290 locations in 53 countries and territories.
About Cree, Inc.
Cree is a market-leading innovator and manufacturer of semiconductors and devices that enhance the value of solid-state lighting, power and communications products by significantly increasing their energy performance and efficiency. Key to Cree’s market advantage is its world-class materials expertise in silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) for chips and packaged devices that can handle more power in a smaller space while producing less heat than other available technologies, materials and products.
Cree drives its increased performance technology into multiple applications including exciting alternatives in brighter and more-tunable light for general illumination, backlighting for more-vivid displays, optimized power management for high-current, switch-mode power supplies and variable-speed motors, and more-effective wireless infrastructure for data and voice communications. Cree customers range from innovative lighting-fixture makers to defense-related federal agencies.
Cree’s product families include blue and green LED chips, lighting LEDs, LED backlighting solutions, power-switching devices and radio-frequency/wireless devices. For additional product specifications please refer to www.cree.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, such as the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impair demand or render our products obsolete; the potential lack of customer acceptance for the products; variations in demand for Cree's products and its customers' products; and other factors discussed in Cree’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 25, 2006, and subsequent filings.
Media Contact:
Deb Lovig
Marketing Communications
Cree, Inc.
Deb_Lovig@cree.com
(919) 287-7505
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