Durham, North Carolina, May 18, 2004--Cree Inc. announced that Sumitomo Corporation has agreed to purchase $160 million of Cree's LED products during Cree's fiscal year ending June 2005, subject to end customer demand and other terms and conditions. As part of the agreement, Cree and Sumitomo also announced the extension of the current distributorship relationship through Cree's fiscal year ending June 2007. Both companies anticipate that the purchases will cover Cree's full line of LED products representing its standard brightness, mid-brightness and high brightness devices, including MegaBright, Xbright, and XThin LEDs.
Chuck Swoboda, Cree's president and CEO, stated, "This new agreement is the largest purchase commitment in Cree's history and highlights the strength of our partnership with Sumitomo and our Japanese customers. We believe the growth in Japan is representative of the strong worldwide demand for our LEDs. New products are driving end customer demand and helping us expand our relationships with the major LED packagers."
Koichiro Kusano, general manager of Sumitomo's Electronic Materials & Equipment Division stated, "We expect shipments to Japanese customers during the twelve months ending June 2004 to exceed our contract commitment, and end customer demand continues to grow. The technology being delivered by Cree, combined with the strong market demand for high brightness blue, green and white LEDs in Japan, continues to be a winning formula for success in the market."