Doug Norton Named Chief Marketing Officer and Thomas Fedorko Named Chief Operating Officer
Company Also Announces Increase to Size of Private Placement and Issuance of Stock Options
VANCOUVER, British Columbia and AUSTIN, Texas, June 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Inspire Semiconductor Holdings Inc. (TSXV: INSP) (“InspireSemi” or the “Company”), a chip design company that has built a technology foundation to deliver revolutionary accelerated computing performance, today announced the promotions of Doug Norton, formerly Vice President of Business Development, to Chief Marketing Officer, and Thomas Fedorko, formerly Vice President of Operations, to Chief Operating Officer.
“Given the strong response we have received for our compelling High-Performance Computing (HPC)/AI accelerator platform, we are pleased to announce these key promotions,” said Ron Van Dell, CEO of InspireSemi. “InspireSemi has consistently engaged seasoned executives who are leaders in their respective areas and can scale with the Company. These appointments now complete our leadership team along with Alex Gray, Founder, President and CTO, and John B. Kennedy, our CFO. I’m confident Doug and Thomas will continue to help drive us forward in their new roles during this period of rapid growth for the Company.”
As Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Norton will have direct oversight over all the Company’s sales, marketing and business development activities. Norton is a senior business development, sales, and marketing executive with over 35 years of experience in public and startup enterprise technology companies. Prior to InspireSemi, Norton held various senior leadership positions at Cadence Design Systems, CoWare, Newisys, Virtual Instruments, and Nimbix. He also is President of the Society of HPC Professionals and member of the RISC-V SIG-HPC and marketing committee.
As Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Fedorko will oversee InspireSemi’s day-to-day operational functions including maintaining key supply chain relationships, managing production scale up and new product introductions. Prior to InspireSemi, Fedorko was the Vice President of Operations for Eta Compute who developed an ultra-low power solution for energy constrained AI applications. Previously, he led the Operations teams for several successful startup companies including Uhnder, Bluetechnix (acquired by Becom), Black Sand Technologies (acquired by Qualcomm), Luminary Micro (acquired by Texas Instruments) and Oak Technology (acquired by Zoran).
The appointments are subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”).
Increase to Previously Announced Non-Brokered Private Placement
The Company also announced that, due to strong demand, it has increased the size of the previously announced non-brokered private placement offering of convertible debenture units (the “Units”) of the Company, first announced in a press release dated April 13, 2023, (the “Offering”), by C$2,000,000. The Company will now seek to raise a total of up to C$4,966,000 pursuant to the Offering in addition to the issuance of Units to lenders under an amendment to an existing loan agreement as announced in a press release dated May 19, 2023 (the “Amendment”).
The Company previously announced by press release dated May 19, 2023 the closing of a first tranche of the Offering consisting of 1,139 Units for gross proceeds of C$1,139,000 meaning the Company now proposes to issue up to an additional 3,827 Units for gross proceeds of up to C$3,827,000 under the Offering.
As previously announced by press release dated May 30, 2023. the Company expects both the Offering and the Amendment to close on or before June 28, 2023, in one or more tranches.
Please refer to the Company’s press releases dated April 13, 2023, May 19, 2023 and May 30, 2023 for further information.
The closing of the Offering and the Amendment is subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including the acceptance of the TSXV.
Issuance of Stock Options
The Company also announced its board of directors approved the grant of stock options dated June 5, 2023 (the “Options”) to certain directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company to acquire a total of 4,936,163 subordinate voting shares in the capital of the Company at an exercise price of $0.09.
All of the Options are exercisable for a ten-year term expiring June 5, 2033 and were granted pursuant to the Company’s omnibus equity incentive plan (the “Plan”). All of the Options are subject to the terms of the Plan, applicable option agreements and the requirements of the TSXV.
1,309,651 of the Options are fully vested as of the date of grant. 3,551,512 of the Options vest in equal monthly amounts over 4 years, with vesting commencement dates in both January and June 2023. The remaining 75,000 Options vest in equal monthly amounts over 6 months with a vesting commencement date in June, 2023.
All of the Option grants are subject to the approval of the TSXV.
About InspireSemi
InspireSemi is an Austin-based chip design company that has built a technology foundation that delivers revolutionary performance, energy efficiency, versatility, and a thriving open software ecosystem. This enables us to address multiple diversified, uncorrelated markets of High- Performance Computing (HPC), AI, and blockchain. Led by an accomplished team with a proven track record, it has a unique and strongly differentiated accelerated computing solution compared to existing approaches for these markets.
For more information, visit https://inspiresemi.com/
Follow InspireSemi on LinkedIn
Investor Relations Contact
Phil Carlson/Scott Eckstein
KCSA Strategic Communication
[email protected]
Company Contact
John B. Kennedy, CFO
(737) 471-3230
[email protected]
Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (“forward-looking statements”). Statements concerning InspireSemi’s objectives, goals, strategies, priorities, intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations and estimates, and the business, operations, financial performance and condition of InspireSemi are forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, or “believes” or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or statements formed in the future tense or indicating that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” (or other variations of the forgoing) be taken, occur, be achieved, or come to pass.
Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information regarding: (i) the business plans and expectations of the Company including expectations with respect to production and development; and (ii) expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. Forward-looking information is based on currently available competitive, financial and economic data and operating plans, strategies or beliefs as of the date of this presentation, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of InspireSemi, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors may be based on information currently available to the Company including information obtained from third-party industry analysts and other third-party sources, and are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs. Any and all forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is not based on historical facts but instead reflect management’s expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Forward-looking information reflects management’s current beliefs and is based on information currently available to them and on assumptions they believe to be not unreasonable in light of all of the circumstances. In some instances, material factors or assumptions are discussed in this news release in connection with statements containing forward-looking information. Such material factors and assumptions include, but are not limited to: (i) statements relating to the business and future activities of, and developments related to, the Company after the date of this press release;(ii) expected satisfaction of all closing conditions in connection with the Offering and Amendment, including receipt of final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange; (iii) expected completion of the Offering and Amendment upon the terms contemplated herein and, in any event, on terms that are no less advantageous to the Company; (iv) expectations for other economic, business, regulatory and/or competitive factors related to the Company or the technology industry generally; (v) the risk factors as described from time to time in documents filed by the Company with Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com; and (vi) other events or conditions that may occur in the future. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this news release and, other than as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law.
Neither the TSX Venture nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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