Altera Refines Guidance; Provides Financial Update.

Business Editors and High Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 7, 2002

Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) today narrowed revenue guidance for the quarter. The company announced that fourth quarter revenues will decline approximately 7% from the $174.2 million reported in the third quarter. Altera guidance for the quarter, originally issued in October, was for a sequential decline of 5-10%.

John Daane, president and CEO, said, "It appears that we have seen the bottom of this cycle. We built end customer backlog in the quarter, with orders-to-resales exceeding 1.0 in both November and December. We look forward to modest growth in the March quarter."

The company also announced an asset write-down and inventory charge. The company will record a fourth quarter charge totaling approximately $18 million resulting from asset write-downs and impairment. The charge consists of the write-off of the book value of its Northwest Logic design services subsidiary that was divested in the fourth quarter, the write-down of surplus manufacturing assets that will be held for sale, and the write-off of a minority investment.

Additionally, the company also will record an inventory charge of approximately $35 million for excess inventories. Nathan Sarkisian, chief financial officer, commented, "Continued softness in demand in the second half of the year has further reduced the anticipated life-time demand of certain products, especially in the mainstream product category. This write-down reflects our current best estimates of the ultimate disposition of our inventories."

Conference Call

The company will host a conference call today at 2:00 PM Pacific Time to discuss this update. The call may be accessed by calling [phone] and referencing Altera. A live webcast of the call will be available on the company's web site, http://www.altera.com, in the Investor Relations section. A telephonic replay will be available at 5:00 PM Pacific Time and may be accessed by calling [phone] and referencing conference code 258712. A webcast replay will be posted later in the day. This replay will be available for 2 weeks.

Fourth Quarter Earnings

The company will announce its complete fourth quarter results after the market closes on January 22, 2002 and a conference call will be held at 2:00 PM Pacific Time to discuss the quarter's results and management's business outlook. A live webcast and replay of the call will be available on the company's website. For those without access to the Internet, the live call and replay may be accessed telephonically. Further details are available through the company's investor relations information hotline at [phone].

Forward-Looking Statements 

Statements in this press release that are not historical are "forward-looking statements," as the term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally written in the future tense and/or preceded by words such as "will" or words that imply or predict a future state such as "expects" or "intend". Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty which can cause actual results to differ from those currently anticipated, due to a number of factors, including without limitation the risk that future performance is dependent on the design performance of software and other tools, customer business environment, market acceptance of the company's products, changing economic conditions, as well as the completion of the normal quarter's end accounting processes and other risk factors discussed in documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release and, except as required by law, the company does not undertake an obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

About Altera

Altera Corporation (Nasdaq:ALTR) is the world's pioneer of system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions. Combining programmable logic technology with software tools, intellectual property, and technical services, Altera provides high-value programmable solutions to approximately 14,000 customers worldwide. More information is available at www.altera.com.

Altera, The Programmable Solutions Company, the stylized Altera logo, specific device designations and all other words that are identified as trademarks and/or service marks are, unless noted otherwise, the trademarks and service marks of Altera Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.