Artisan Components Announces Follow-On Public Offering

SUNNYVALE, Calif., -- February 26, 2003 -- Artisan Components Inc., (Nasdaq: ARTI), a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP), today announced that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a public offering of 2,500,000 newly issued shares and 1,100,000 shares offered by selling stockholders. Artisan has also granted the underwriters an option to purchase an additional 540,000 shares to cover over-allotments.

The managing underwriters of the offering are UBS Warburg LLC, RBC Capital Markets, Needham & Company, Inc. and D.A. Davidson & Co. When available, a copy of the preliminary prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from UBS Warburg LLC, 299 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10171-0026; RBC Capital Markets, RBC Dain Rauscher Plaza, 60 South Sixth Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402; Needham & Company, Inc., 445 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022 and D.A. Davidson & Co., Inc., 701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3250, Seattle, WA 98104.

Artisan Components, Inc. is a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP) components for the design and manufacture of complex system-on-a-chip integrated circuits. Our products include embedded memory, standard cell and input/output components, which are designed to achieve the best combination of performance, density, power and yield for a given manufacturing process. Artisan has licensed its IP components to over 1,000 companies involved in integrated circuit design. Artisan is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

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Artisan Components, Artisan and Process-Perfect are registered trademarks of Artisan Components, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.