May 27 2005
Cree, Inc. today announced that its Japanese distributor, Sumitomo Corporation, has agreed to purchase $200 million of Cree’s light emitting diode (LED) products during Cree’s fiscal year ending June 2006, subject to end-customer demand and other terms and conditions. This record purchase commitment was added to the existing distributorship agreement, which extends through Cree’s fiscal year ending June 2007. Both companies anticipate that purchases will be made across Cree’s full line of LED chip products representing its standard brightness, mid-brightness and high brightness devices, including MegaBright®, XBright® and XThin® LEDs.
“Cree continues to provide the new products and cutting-edge technology our customers require,“ states Koichiro Kusano, Assistant General Manager of Sumitomo’s Electronic Division. “These continued advances in performance, combined with Cree’s respected intellectual property, allow Sumitomo to continue to expand our market share through increasing penetration in growing application segments like LCD backlighting.”
“The renewal of our agreement and increased purchase commitment reflects the growth we are forecasting in Japan and highlights the strength of our partnership with Sumitomo and our Japanese customers,” stated Chuck Swoboda, Cree’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
http://www.cree.com