SICON SECURES E5 MILLION IN ITS FIRST ROUND OF FINANCING

SICON SECURES E5 MILLION IN ITS FIRST ROUND OF FINANCING INVESTMENT BY INNOVATIONSKAPITAL, CREANDUM, INDUSTRIFONDEN AND SCOPE WILL BRING SICON'S GROUND-BREAKING FRONT-END DECODER TO THE DISPLAY MARKET LINKÖPING, Sweden - (May 6, 2004) - Silicon Construction Sweden AB (SiCon), one of the leading ASIC design houses in Europe, announced today the completion of a E5 million first round financing to explore the potential of its ground-breaking key component for the fast growing flat panel display and projector markets. The component, an analog front-end signal decoder, is the first application of SiCon's patented Irondale technology for analog-to-digital conversion. A syndicate with leading Swedish investors InnovationsKapital, Creandum, Industrifonden and Scope completed the round. "We are glad to have attracted a strong investor base for the launch of our first commercial analog front-end product Irondale III" said Rolf Sundblad, co-founder and CEO of SiCon. "The market for high performance analog front-end decoders is growing rapidly with a strong demand from LCD-TV's, plasma displays, flat screen desktop monitors and business projectors" Rolf Sundblad continued. "Irondale III will be the first high performance 10-bit decoder from the Irondale product family and leading Asian consumer electronics manufacturers have verified our chip on evaluation boards with extremely satisfactory results. With our E5m financing, we will be able to bring our product to the market soon" added Staffan Gustafsson, also co-founder and COO of SiCon. "In an ever more digital world the need to convert the analogue reality, without perceivable degradation, becomes crucial" said Stefan Lindeberg Partner at Creandum. "SiCon address this need starting in the display industry, but with numerous other applications and we look forward to work with the team to create value for employees, customers and shareholders" Robert Göthner, Investment Director of InnovationsKapital states: "SiCon has a clear opportunity to become the leading company of high performance analog front-end decoders. We look forward to work together with SiCon and the other investors to create a successful and valuable company" Dag Sigurd, Investment Director of Industrifonden says: "Sicon has a strong IPR base and state-of-the-art technology. We believe that Sicon will become a successful Swedish fabless chip company, with great growth potential." "SiCon has developed a decoder that directly meets the well defined need for higher picture quality in the display market" said Andreas Ossmark Managing Partner at Scope. "We believe SiCon with its unique analog competence has a significant growth potential that extends well beyond the display market". For further information contact: Rolf Sundblad, CEO SiCon, phone +46 13 23 42 20, e-mail rolfs@sicon.sicon.se Lars-Erik Nordell, Chairman of the board SiCon, phone +46 705 64 06 55 e-mail lars-eric.nordell@sicon.se About SiCon SiCon was founded in 1982 by the members of the LSI center of Linköping University as an independent ASIC design house. SiCon has since then offered complete solutions in full-custom ASIC design and production for customers as e.g. ABB, SAAB, Philips, Ericsson, CERN and AstraZeneca. The SiCon team has a world wide unique expertise in low power analog applications. SiCon was 1998 acquired by the leading Canadian professional video technology supplier Leitch Technology Coporation (Toronto Stock Exchange:LTV). As an independent subsidiary SiCon started to develop a signal decoder to be combined with Leitch's video controller. In 2002 two of SiCon's original co-founders, PhD Rolf Sundblad and PhD Staffan Gustafsson acquired SiCon through an MBO. SiCon has since then finalized the development of its first commercial 10-bit high performance decoder with an extremely low power consumption and small die size. The first decoder named Irondale III is initially targeting the high-end market for LCD-TV, plasma screens and projectors. The decoder will initially be sold as a stand-alone chip, but will also be available for IP licensing for System-on-Chip integration. Irondale III will be followed by other Analog-to-Digital Conversion solutions for other application areas as e.g. 802.11x and UWB. Further information about SiCon can be found at www.sicon.se About Irondale Irondale III is the first product out of the Irondale product family with state-of-the-art mixed-signal, i.e. analog and digital, capabilities. Being able to use LCD-TV's, plasma screens and TV-projectors at home calls for a need of a product that can convert the analog signal received via the antenna into digital pictures displayed on the screen. Leaving competing products far behind Irondale III, with its capability to convert 10-bit at 205MHz, performs this conversion at a level enabling consumer flat screens to display a crystal clear picture, even in fast motion sequences where today's flat panels fail. Irondale III constitutes together with a tuner and video controller the electric component behind a display. Irondale III not only allows the display suppliers to offer a far better quality in its TV capabilities. Suppliers will also, with the higher quality, be able to offer high performance multi purpose displays for all other sorts of input including from PC's and game consoles. REMOVED GRAPHICS About InnovationsKapital InnovationsKapital was founded in 1994 and is a leading early stage venture capital firm for innovative growth companies in the Nordic region. The business, carried out from offices in Gothenburg and Stockholm, is focused on Nordic investments within ICT and Healthcare & Life Sciences - dynamic sectors that are rapidly expanding and where Nordic research plays an important role. The capital (EUR 200 million) is managed in three funds and is provided by highly reputable Swedish and international institutional investors. Further information about InnovationsKapital can be found at www.innkap.se About Creandum Creandum invests in innovative entrepreneurs with expertise within technology-based products and markets. Its focus is early stage in the Nordic area. Creandum is a SEK 300 million venture capital fund. Further information about Creandum can be found at www.creandum.com About Industrifonden Industrifonden invests in small and medium-sized companies in most sectors of industry. We have several types of financing - both loans and equity capital. Industrifonden, with 25 years of experience and investments in hundreds of companies, is one of the largest and most experienced venture capital organizations in Sweden. Further information about Industrifonden can be found at www.industrifonden.se About Scope Scope Venture Capital I is an investment fund with approximately SEK 200 m in capital commitments from Swedish institutions, primarily life insurance companies and pension funds. Scope is an active investor in early stage companies with a sustainable competitive advantage and high growth potential. Further information about Scope can be found at www.scope.se ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/05/11/20040511BIT20730/wkr0006.pdf Release with picture