"Last quarter we delivered solid operating margins and earnings despite a weaker global semiconductor industry environment and the adverse impact of foreign exchange rates," said Steve Laub, Atmel's President and Chief Executive Officer.  "Our attractive product portfolio and resilient operating model position us for meaningful margin expansion and increased cash generation once the industry resumes growth." 

Cash provided by operations totaled $25.9 million for the second quarter of 2015, compared to $40.1 million for the first quarter of 2015 and $52.5 million for the second quarter of 2014.  Combined cash balances (cash and cash equivalents plus short-term investments) totaled $196.4 million at the end of the second quarter of 2015, a decrease of $4.5 million from the immediately preceding quarter resulting principally from the acquisition of fixed assets of $10.9 million, the payment of $16.7 million for our common stock dividend, the repurchase of $2.9 million in common stock during the second quarter, and $10.1 million debt repayments, offset by our cash generated from operations, $8.9 million proceeds from the sale of the XSense division and $3.8 million proceeds from the sale of investments in a privately-held company.

Company Highlights

• Released for production Atmel | SMART ARM® Cortex® M7 based microcontrollers, world's highest performing M-based MCU, for IoT, industrial and automotive applications
• Launched new family of Atmel | SMART ARM® Cortex® M0+ based microcontrollers combining 5V functionality with integrated peripheral touch controller for the rapidly expanding smart appliance and industrial markets
• Arduino began volume shipments of Zero board featuring Atmel | SMART ARM® Cortex® M0+ based microcontrollers for the IoT development Maker community
• Arduino began volume shipments of Wi-Fi Shield enabling secure Wi-Fi connectivity for all Arduino platforms
• Launched IoT cloud ecosystem partner program to accelerate IoT development
• Showcased wearable turnkey solution at Computex 2015 featuring Atmel's ultra-low power embedded processing, wireless, touch, security and sensor technologies
• Expanded maXTouch® U series touch controllers with six new devices enabling next-generation touchscreens from 1.2" to 10.1" for wearables, super phones and tablets
• ASUS selected maXTouch® and maXStylus® to power world's first on-cell touchscreen with capacitive active stylus enabling 'pen-to-paper' writing experience

Stock Repurchase
During the second quarter of 2015, Atmel repurchased 345 thousand shares of its common stock in the open market at an average price of $8.37 per share.

Outlook – Q3 2015

• Revenue between $283 and $303 million
• Non-GAAP gross margin 47.5% plus or minus 100 basis points
• Non-GAAP operating expenses $104 million, plus or minus $2 million

Non-GAAP Metrics
Non-GAAP net income excludes share-based compensation expense, acquisition-related charges, restructuring charges (credits), operating results of the exited XSense business for 2015, loss from manufacturing facility damage and shutdown, French building underutilization and other (credits), loss (gain) related to foundry arrangements, gain on sale of assets and investments, non-GAAP tax adjustments, as well as net (loss) income attributable to noncontrolling interest.  A reconciliation of GAAP results to non-GAAP results is included following the financial statements below.

Conference Call
Atmel will hold a teleconference at 2 p.m. PT today to discuss the second quarter 2015 financial results. The conference call will be webcast live and can also be monitored by dialing 1-706-758-4519.  The conference access code is 68295827 and participants are encouraged to initiate their calls 10 minutes prior to the 2 p.m. PT start time to ensure a timely connection. The webcast and earnings release will be accessible at http://ir.atmel.com/ and will be archived for 12 months.

A replay of the July 28, 2015 conference call will be available the same day at approximately 5 p.m. PT and will be archived for 48 hours. The replay access number is 1-404-537-3406. The access code is 68295827.

About Atmel
Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch solutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with intelligent and connected solutions focused on the industrial, automotive, consumer, communications, and computing markets.

©2015 Atmel Corporation. Atmel®, Atmel logo and combinations thereof, Enabling Unlimited Possibilities®, and others are registered trademarks or trademarks of Atmel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this release, including those regarding Atmel's financial outlook for the third quarter of 2015, long-term forecasts, business outlook, expectations, new product launches, and beliefs, among others, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may include comments about our future operating and financial performance, including our outlook for 2015 and beyond, our expectations regarding market share and product revenue growth, and Atmel's strategies. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to Atmel as of the date of this release, including our third quarter 2015 outlook, which may change. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, without limitation, general global macroeconomic and geo-political conditions; the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry; the inability to realize the anticipated benefits of transactions related to acquisitions, restructuring activities or other initiatives in a timely manner or at all; consolidation occurring within the semiconductor industry through mergers and acquisitions; the impact of competitive products and pricing; disruption to our business caused by our increased dependence on outside foundries, financial instability or insolvency proceedings affecting some of those foundries, and associated litigation involving us in some cases; industry and/or company overcapacity or undercapacity, including capacity constraints of our independent assembly contractors; the success of our customers' end products and timely design acceptance by our customers; timely introduction of new products and technologies and implementation of new manufacturing technologies; our ability to ramp new products into volume production; our reliance on non-binding customer forecasts and the absence of long-term supply contracts with most of our customers; financial stability in foreign markets and the impact or volatility of foreign exchange rates and significant devaluation of the Euro against the U.S. dollar; unanticipated changes in environmental, health and safety regulations; our dependence on selling through independent distributors; the complexity of our revenue recognition policies; information technology system failures; business interruptions, natural disasters or terrorist acts; unanticipated costs and expenses or the inability to identify expenses which can be eliminated; the market price or increased volatility of our common stock; disruptions in the availability of raw materials; compliance with U.S. and international laws and regulations by us and our distributors; our dependence on key personnel; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; litigation (including intellectual property litigation in which we may be involved or in which our customers may be involved, especially in the mobile device sector), and the possible unfavorable results of legal proceedings; and other risks detailed from time to time in Atmel's SEC reports and filings, including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, filed on February 26, 2015. Atmel assumes no obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor Contact:   
Peter Schuman
Senior Director, Investor Relations
(408) 437-2026