Silicon Hive spins out from Philips; New Venture Partners leads $10 million investment round, joined by TVM Capital and Philips

-- Royal Philips Electronics announced that Silicon Hive, a venture within Philips Technology Incubator, has been spun out as an independent company as of April 16, 2007. New Venture Partners, TVM Capital and Philips have together invested $10 million in the new company. Philips retains a minority stake. Silicon Hive provides highly innovative programmable processor IP cores for the semiconductor and consumer electronics industry.

The investment enables Silicon Hive B.V. to implement its ambitious growth plans by scaling its commercial operations worldwide, and allowing further investments into new product development. As an independent semiconductor IP supplier, Silicon Hive has the freedom to license to the entire electronics industry. The new company will have offices in Eindhoven (The Netherlands), Silicon Valley (United States), Seoul (Korea) and Bangalore (India).

Silicon Hive enables semiconductor companies to make fully-programmable System-on-Chips (SoCs) for demanding applications, such as mobile TV, mobile WiMax, high quality imaging, and high definition video signal processing. High-volume electronics manufacturers can use a unified hardware platform for their products, whereby specific functionality and/or regional requirements can be programmed in software. This leads to lower cost, flexibility in product design and manufacturing and a faster-time-to market.

“Our silicon-proven cores are now starting to penetrate tier one semiconductor companies supplying major mobile phone and consumer electronics companies,” says Atul Sinha, CEO of Silicon Hive B.V. “By leveraging award-winning Philips technology and solid investment from New Venture Partners and TVM Capital, Silicon Hive can now accelerate its growth plans and exploit this huge business opportunity.”

“We are thrilled to be investing in Silicon Hive, which leads the technology for delivering next-generation programmable platforms to the semiconductor industry and we look forward to helping them grow," said Anton Arts, a partner at New Venture Partners. „Silicon Hive's unique application-specific processor IP, targets semiconductors sold into very large consumer markets,“ said Chris Cobbold, a partner at TVM Capital. Mr. Arts and Mr. Cobbold have joined the Supervisory Board of Silicon Hive B.V.

Silicon Hive was formed four years ago to commercialize Philips Research’s world-leading technology in programmable solutions for consumer and mobile devices. Since then, the company has launched a product portfolio consisting of tuned processor cores for communications and media processing applications as well as a sophisticated hardware and software design flow to enhance designer productivity. Silicon Hive products have gained acclaim from leading edge semiconductor designers and analysts alike as the sole programmable solution that matches manually optimized hard-wired design methods in performance, power consumption and cost. Lead customers have applied Silicon Hive products in SoCs for mobile phones, printers for the consumer market, and mobile WiMax terminals.

New Venture Partners is the leading global venture capital firm specializing in corporate technology spin-outs. This transaction is the result of an on-going collaboration with Philips to support research-based technology businesses, which led to the creation of Liquavista in 2006. TVM Capital is a leading technology investment group with offices in Germany and the U.S. Both firms have a long track record in the semiconductor industry and a history of building companies that enjoy the benefits of access to research, talent and capital from both sides of the Atlantic.

Silicon Hive is the second consecutive spin-out from Philips Technology Incubator group, formed four years ago to transform innovative Philips’ technologies into new business opportunities. In January of this year Polymer Vision Ltd., focusing on products for the rollable display market, became an independent company with venture capital investment. Last year Philips Laser Sensors spun up into Philips Lighting Division to supply its Twin-eye Laser sensors to the PC peripheral and mobile industry.

More information: www.siliconhive.com

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a global leader in healthcare, lifestyle and technology, delivering products, services and solutions through the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 124,300 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 27 billion in 2006, the company is a market leader in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring systems, energy efficient lighting solutions, personal care and home appliances, as well as consumer electronics.