Embattled Atmel Under More Scrutiny

Staff Reporter -- Electronic News, 8/16/2006

Just over a week after ousting its CEO and a few other key executives over the misuse of travel funds, Atmel is under scrutiny again for stock options backdating.

The semiconductor company has received an informal request for information relating to past stock options grants from the San Francisco district office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The semiconductor company said it would cooperate fully with all matters related to the request.

Atmel also said that it plans to request a hearing before the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel to review a Nasdaq Staff Determination notice that threatens the company with delisting because it did not file its Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30 by the deadline. The hearing request will automatically stay the delisting, pending the outcome of the Panel’s decision.

Atmel designs and manufactures microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components.