Microchip Technology Announces Retirement of Gordon Parnell as Chief Financial Officer and Appointment of J. Eric Bjornholt as New CFO

CHANDLER, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP), a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced the retirement of Gordon Parnell as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective December 31, 2008. Upon Mr. Parnell's retirement, he will be replaced by J. Eric Bjornholt, currently Vice President of Finance and Corporate Secretary.

Mr. Parnell has been with Microchip since its inception in April 1989, and has served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since May 2000. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Controller and Treasurer from April 1993.

"During his tenure with the company, Microchip has benefited enormously from Gordon's leadership, outstanding strategic and financial direction, integrity, and his strong disciplined approach to finance," said Steve Sanghi, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Gordon built a world-class finance organization for Microchip and leaves a very capable and strong team. His tremendous contributions to Microchip will leave a lasting impact on the company."

Eric Bjornholt joined Microchip in 1995 and has served in various financial management roles, most recently as Vice President, Finance. Before joining Microchip, Mr. Bjornholt worked for KPMG serving technology companies in Arizona. Mr. Bjornholt is a certified public accountant, has an undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Arizona and a Master's degree from Arizona State University.

"We are fortunate to have such a highly competent successor in Eric Bjornholt. During his career at Microchip, he has worked in many financial management functions, and has demonstrated a high degree of skill, talent and leadership capability," Mr. Sanghi continued. "The future holds many opportunities and challenges for Microchip, and continuing strong financial leadership is crucial to our success. Eric understands the semiconductor industry and our company, and we are confident that his qualifications, experience and skill will contribute to maintaining Microchip's outstanding performance and continued execution of our first-rate business model and our growth strategies."

Mr. Sanghi concluded, "Microchip's Board of Directors and I want to thank Gordon for his many years of dedicated service and wish him the very best in his retirement and future endeavors."

Cautionary Statement:

The statements contained in this release relating to the many opportunities and challenges for Microchip, continuing strong financial leadership, maintaining our outstanding performance and continued execution of our first-rate business model and our growth strategies are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to: changes in demand or market acceptance of our products and the products of our customers; the mix of inventory we hold and our ability to satisfy short-term orders from our inventory; changes in utilization of our manufacturing capacity; our ability to continue to secure sufficient assembly and testing capacity; competitive developments including pricing pressures; the level of orders that are received and can be shipped in a quarter; the level of sell-through of our products through distribution; changes or fluctuations in customer order patterns and seasonality; costs and outcome of any current or future tax audit or any litigation involving intellectual property, customers or other issues; disruptions in our business or the businesses of our customers or suppliers due to natural disasters, terrorist activity, armed conflict, war, worldwide oil prices and supply, public health concerns or disruptions in the transportation system; and general economic, industry or political conditions in the United States or internationally.

For a detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, please refer to Microchip's filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. You can obtain copies of Forms 10-K and 10-Q and other relevant documents for free at Microchip's Web site (www.microchip.com) or the SEC's Web site (www.sec.gov) or from commercial document retrieval services.

Stockholders of Microchip are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date such statements are made. Microchip does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or new information after this September 3, 2008 press release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

About Microchip:

Microchip Technology Inc. is a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, providing low-risk product development, lower total system cost and faster time to market for thousands of diverse customer applications worldwide. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip offers outstanding technical support along with dependable delivery and quality. For more information, visit the Microchip Web site at www.microchip.com.

Source: Microchip Technology Incorporated

Released September 3, 2008