September 13, 2001 – Ottawa, Canada – Mosaid Technologies Inc. said it has cut 44 staff after negotiations for new business broke down and the company was hit by poor market conditions in the semiconductor industry.

“Up until two weeks ago, we believed that a major new patent licensing agreement would be signed in our second quarter,” said George Cwynar, Mosaid’s CEO. “In the absence of this agreement, we can no longer sustain the same level of product and market development activities and must take measures to lower our cost base. This has resulted in the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our workforce by 17%.” Mosaid employed 258 at the end of July.

Cwynar said the restructuring was forced by the recent breakdown in patent licensing negotiations with a major unnamed memory manufacturer and were compounded by the current dismal semiconductor market. Most of the layoffs occurred in the semiconductor division.

Cuts were also made as a result of the decision by Mosaid customer Chrysalis-ITS to close its semiconductor division in August. Mosaid will stop development on an encryption chip designed specifically for Chrysalis-ITS.