Silver Lake Sumeru Invests in Spansion …

Silver Lake Sumeru, the middle market investment group of Silver Lake, recently closed on an investment in Spansion Inc., a supplier of flash memory to embedded and targeted applications markets.

Spansion filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in March 2009 and successfully emerged from bankruptcy on May 10, 2010 as a re-organized entity with strong operating results and a well capitalized balance sheet. Spansion currently has approximately $480 million in debt, $230 million of cash and a $65 million undrawn, asset-backed, line of credit.

“Silver Lake Sumeru is pleased to be an investor in the newly emerged Spansion,” said Ajay Shah, Managing Director of Silver Lake Sumeru. “The embedded applications market is growing at a significant rate and we look forward to engaging with the Spansion management team as the re-organized company works to become the leader in supplying flash memory to this market.”

“We are very happy to have Silver Lake Sumeru as a major equity partner in Spansion,” said John Kispert, President and CEO of Spansion. “We look forward to leveraging the firm’s operational expertise and track record of partnering with technology companies as we take our business to the next level.”

Silver Lake Sumeru is appointing two of the Spansion board members who will assist the company as it seeks to evolve from a capital-intensive broad-based flash memory business to a focused cash-flow-generative supplier serving embedded and targeted wireless markets.

Spansion’s NOR solutions are ubiquitous in the consumer electronics, automotive, telecommunications equipment, computer peripherals, and mobile telephone markets.