Actel board to include three Ramius nominees

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., March 9 - Actel Corp. said it will expand its board of directors to nine and add three new independent directors put forth by shareholder Ramius LLC.

The three new members will be:

• Eric J. Zahler, managing director of Sagamore Capital Group LLC and former president and chief operating officer of Loral Space & Communications Inc.;

• Jeffrey C. Smith, a partner of Ramius; and

• Gavin T. Molinelli, a vice president of Ramius.

Actel agreed to then reduce the size of the board to eight members at its 2009 annual meeting of shareholders on June 5.

Ramius and Actel said they will work cooperatively to replace Molinelli with a new independent director, unaffiliated with Ramius, who possesses significant semiconductor industry experience.

In addition, Ramius said it will vote its shares in support of all of Actel's director nominees at the 2009 annual meeting and abide by some other standstill provisions.

In November, Ramius suggested that Actel sell its flash business, reduce expenses in the flash business or explore a joint venture opportunity with a large competitor.

Ramius owns 8.8% of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's outstanding stock.

Actel designs, develops and markets flash- and antifuse-based field-programmable gate arrays.

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