SEATTLE, WA, April 24 -- Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. today announced it signed a definitive agreement to sell its interconnect hardware development program and related intellectual property to Intel Corporation for $140 million in cash. 

“This agreement is evidence of the leadership position we’ve established in high performance computing, and is an exciting win for our customers, our company and our shareholders,” said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. “By broadening our relationship with Intel, we are positioned to further penetrate the HPC market and expand on our industry-leading technologies in support of our Adaptive Supercomputing vision. Our product roadmap remains intact as we continue to build the highly differentiated, tightly integrated supercomputers that our customers have come to expect from Cray. This agreement also dramatically strengthens our balance sheet and increases our options for further growth, profitability and creating shareholder value.”

Highlights of the agreement include:

• Cray to receive $140 million in cash at closing;
• Cray will continue to develop, sell and support current product lines, as well as the Company’s next-generation supercomputer code-named “Cascade”;
• Cray has opportunities to leverage important differentiating features of certain future Intel products;
• Cray to retain certain rights to use the transferred assets and intellectual property in Cray products;
• Up to 74 Cray employees will join Intel;
• The transaction is expected to close relatively quickly, but in any event before the end of the current quarter, subject to customary closing conditions.

Cray anticipates that the lower headcount resulting from this transaction will yield cost savings in future periods from what they would have been, with a relatively modest amount of the benefit expected in 2012.

Cray will host a conference call to discuss this pending transaction tomorrow, Wednesday, April 25 at 5:00 a.m. PDT (8:00 a.m. EDT).  Additionally, Cray will host a second conference call on Thursday, April 26 to discuss first quarter 2012 financial results and the 2012 outlook, as well as the anticipated financial impact of the definitive agreement with Intel. An advisory containing the details of that conference call will be issued separately.

Definitive Agreement Conference Call Information

Cray will host a conference call tomorrow, Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 5:00 a.m. PDT (8:00 a.m. EDT). To access the call, please dial into the conference at least 10 minutes prior to the beginning of the call at 1-877-941-0843. International callers should dial 1-480-629-9866. To listen to the audio webcast, go to the Investors section of the Cray website at http://investors.cray.com.

If you are unable to attend the live conference call, an audio webcast replay will be available in the Investors section of the Cray website for 180 days. If you do not have Internet access, a replay of the call will be available by dialing 1-800-406-7325, international callers dial 1-303-590-3030, and entering the access code 4534727. The conference call replay will be available for 72 hours, beginning at 8:00 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, April 25, 2012.

About Cray Inc.

As a global leader in supercomputing, Cray provides highly advanced supercomputers and world-class services and support to government, industry and academia. Cray technology is designed to enable scientists and engineers to achieve remarkable breakthroughs by accelerating performance, improving efficiency and extending the capabilities of their most demanding applications. Cray’s Adaptive Supercomputing vision is focused on delivering innovative next-generation products that integrate diverse processing technologies into a unified architecture, allowing customers to surpass today’s limitations and meeting the market’s continued demand for realized performance. Go to www.cray.com for more information.

-----

Source: Cray Inc.