Agere Systems Moves Twin Cities Business and Technology Center to Mendota Heights Office.

Business/Hi-Tech Editors

MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 14, 2001

Move Consolidates Bloomington, Eden Prairie Groups; New Site

Houses 200 Staff Working On Electronics for Hard Disk Drives,

Communications Networking

Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR.A), the world leader in communications components, today is holding opening ceremonies to mark the move of its Twin Cities Business and Technology center to new facilities here.

The site, at 1230 Northland Drive in the Mendota Heights Business Park, is now home to some 200 staff who focus on design, marketing, product management and engineering support for electronic components used in hard disk drives and communications networking systems.

Agere Systems, headquartered in Allentown, Pa., established a presence in the Twin Cities last year when it acquired the products and the design, marketing and sales teams of Bloomington-based VTC Inc., a privately held supplier of semiconductor components to computer hard disk drive manufacturers. VTC's semiconductor manufacturing operation was then renamed PolarFab, which continues to operate in its original Bloomington facility. Prior to moving to Mendota Heights, the Agere staff was housed in PolarFab's offices.

The Mendota Heights office also houses a 19-member Agere team previously located in Eden Prairie. This team, which does design work on components for high-performance routing and protocol processing, had earlier been part of Ascend Communications, and later, the Bell Laboratories research and development arm of Lucent Technologies.

"Our move into new office space unifies our Agere teams in the Twin Cities and strengthens our presence in the area," said Ron Torten, general manager of Agere's Analog Storage products. "We're pleased to be among the prestigious companies that contribute to and benefit from the region's favorable environment for high-technology business."

Hard disk drives are used to store data for text, graphics, audio and video in desktop computers, high-end workstations, Internet servers, and even in new classes of consumer products such as digital video recorders. The electronic components that Agere Systems designs here include preamplifiers and motor controllers - integrated circuits that support the conversion of magnetic fields on a disk drive's platters into digital bits that are processed by computers. These chips, when combined with read-channel and custom interface controller chips that Agere designs and manufactures at other locations, enable the company to provide the hard drive industry with one-stop shopping for electronic components.

Agere's line of hard drive electronics developed in the Twin Cities includes the VM82000 differential read/write preamplifier - the industry's first billion-bit-per-second preamplifier, and the VC2010 motor controller designed for high-end storage systems. The company manufactures these devices at its Allentown, Pa., facility and at Bloomington's PolarFab through contract manufacturing arrangements.

Agere Systems is the world's No.1 provider of components for communications applications with leadership in optical components and integrated circuits. This dual capability uniquely positions Agere to deliver integrated solutions that form the building blocks for advanced wired, wireless, and optical communications networks. Agere also designs and manufactures a wide range of semiconductor solutions for communications-related devices used by consumers such as cellular phones, modems, and hard disk drives for personal computers and workstations. In addition, the company supplies complete wireless computer networking solutions through the ORiNOCO(tm) product line. More information about Agere Systems is available from its Web site at http://www.agere.com.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on information available to Agere as of the date hereof. Agere's actual results could differ materially from the results stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, completion of the distribution or sale of Agere stock by Lucent Technologies Inc., customer demand for our products and services, control of costs and expenses, timely completion of employment reductions and other restructuring activities, price and product competition, keeping pace with technological change, dependence on new product development, reliance on major customers and suppliers, availability of manufacturing capacity, components and materials, general industry and market conditions and general domestic and international economic conditions including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations. For a further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see the prospectus filed by Agere with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 28, 2001, and Agere's subsequent reports on Form 10-Q. Agere disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.