Intel extends cooperation with Opticom

OSLO: Norwegian data storage group Opticom said on Tuesday that US chipmaker

Intel agreed to extend a cooperation deal to develop a new polymer-based memory

system.

Intel, a vital partner for Opticom in its drive to shift from research to

commercial production, would invest 70.7 million crowns in Opticom's majority

owned Thin Film Electronics (TFE) and exercise an option to raise its stake in

TFE to 13 per cent from six per cent, Opticom said.

Opticom, which says TFE technology could store more data than existing data

systems, owns the remaining shares in TFE. At the same time, Opticom said it

planned a stock market listing for TFE. "We plan a separate listing of Thin

Film by the end of 2002," Opticom chairman Thomas Fussell told a news

conference.

"This is the clarification we've been waiting for," he said of the

extension of the 18-month research deal with Intel that had been due to expire

on June 30. Fussell said that TFE would know more about when it might start

commercial production of its memory systems in a few months.

The two also agreed a new licensing agreement that leaves Opticom free to

seek other partners and Fussell said Opticom hoped to agree new partnerships in

2001. Opticom says TFE's technology applied to a mobile phone, for instance,

could contain all the phone numbers in Norway.

Opticom shares fell 89 crowns, or 14.6 per cent, to close at 520 on the Oslo

bourse before the announcement on worries that Intel and Opticom might not agree

further cooperation by Tuesday. Analysts said that the deal was likely to spur a

new share surge for Opticom, one of the most volatile stocks on the Oslo bourse.

In little over a year, they have ranged from a low on March 22 at 405 to an

all-time high of 2,555 in February last year.

The shares hit a recent high of 700 last week on hopes of a quick agreement

with Intel.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.