- 3 June 2005 -

Infineon hands over wearable elecronics

Within the framework of a management buy out Infineon Technologies AG has turned over its activities in the area of wearable electronics to the company Interactive Wear AG iG of Wessling, Germany.

Infineon had conducted research on the integration of electronic functions into textiles and developed this technology to the point that it is ready for the market. But it has discontinued these activities as part of its strategic restructuring and concentration on its core business.

As part of this MBO, which has now been completed, the rights to Intellectual Property such as patents and licenses, now belong to Interactive Wear, along with developmental hardware and software and the existing customer base as well as the parts inventory and the finished wearable electronics products.
The purchase price has not been made public.

"By spinning off its wearable electronics activities, Infineon is following through on its strategy and is concentrating on its core business," said Dominik Asam, Corporate VP for Strategy, Investor Relations and Mergers & Acquisitions at Infineon Technologies AG.

Infineon's former head of engineering for wearable electronics and current CTO at Interactive Wear, Markus Strecker, is participating in the MBO. This specialist for sensor technology played a substantial role in the efforts that turned research results into marketable products.

The MBO is being supported by former partner companies, consultants and industry insiders. Andreas Roepert will assume the role of CEO, and Ms. Awa Garlinska will chair the supervisory board. All the people serving in Interactive Wear's management have been in contact with Infineon (or with Siemens, before it spun off Infineon) for many years or have served as executives in that company.

Andreas Roepert, Interactive Wear's CEO, comments: "Thanks to the technological head start and network of partners that we acquired from Infineon, and to the extremely positive market appraisal from various analysts, who anticipate a market volume of up to $1bn for technical textiles in 2008, we see excellent market opportunities and developmental potential for our company."

In order to ensure continuity right from the start for all of the wearable electronics activities, Dr. Stefan Jung, the former head of Infineon's activities in this field, has been appointed to Interactive Wear's supervisory board. Furthermore, Interactive Wear will employ additional members of Infineon's technical team.

Interactive Wear's company headquarters are located in the Application Center in the Technology Park in Oberpfaffenhofen (Wessling), Germany, which is being subsidized by the State of Bavaria as part of its "high-tech offensive."

Web:http:\\ www.interactive-wear.com