Nu Horizons Electronics UK has added a new head to strengthen its Embedded team. Mark Tootell, who joined Nu Horizons last week as Business Development Manager, spent his first week at the Microsoft Partner Channel Summit in Prague where he was awarded by Microsoft with a “Circle of Excellence” award in recognition of his eleven years of effort promoting and supporting Windows Embedded. Mark brings with him many years of Windows Embedded sales experience, having spent the last three and a half years with Avnet Embedded where his primary role was to support, identify and close Microsoft opportunities for all Avnet EMG businesses.

“We are delighted that Mark has chosen to join us; his enthusiasm for Windows Embedded is infectious and he fits easily into our organisation” stated Phil Gee, VP Sales EMEA for Nu Horizons.

Tootell has more than 15 years experience within the electronics industry. His previously roles include account management at Atmel, Advantech and WindRiver. Tootell holds a B.Eng (Hons) in Engineering & Engineering Systems.

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Increases presence in fast-growing Asia Pacific market Accretive to earnings in first year

Arrow Electronics today announced that it has agreed to acquire Nu Horizons Electronics (“Nu Horizons”) in an all cash transaction for $7.00 per share. Nu Horizons is a leading global distributor of advanced technology semiconductor, display, illumination, and power solutions to a wide variety of commercial original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and electronic manufacturing services providers (EMS).

Nu Horizons has sales facilities in more than 50 locations across North America, Asia, and Europe and regional logistics centers throughout the globe, serving a wide variety of end markets including industrial, military, networking, telecommunications, and data communications. Nu Horizons partners with best-in-class suppliers to provide in-depth product development, custom logistics, and life-cycle support to its customers. Active components distributed by the company, principally to OEMs, include mainly commercial semiconductor products, such as memory chips, microprocessors, digital and linear circuits, microwave, radio frequency (RF) and fiber-optic components, transistors and diodes.

“This acquisition builds on our strategy to expand our global capabilities, especially in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region,” said Michael J. Long, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Arrow Electronics, Inc. “Nu Horizons’ strong customer and supplier relationships and talented employees will allow us to continue to enhance shareholder value.”

Nu Horizons is headquartered in Melville, N.Y., and has over 700 employees. Total sales were $671 million for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2010. The transaction is expected to be $.05-$.10 per share accretive to earnings in the first full year of operations. The acquisition has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and is subject to the approval of Nu Horizons’ shareholders as well as customary regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2010

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Nu Horizons Electronics Corp. (NASDAQ:NUHC), a leading global distributor of advanced technology semiconductor, display, illumination, power, system and telecommunication solutions, today announced the signing of a distribution agreement with H&D Wireless AB, a leading provider of Wi-Fi solutions. The agreement, which is effective immediately, involves the distribution of H&D’s Wi-Fi modules and development kits throughout Nu Horizons’ global network.

“The addition of H&D Wireless offers our customers a greater breadth of technology from a leading wireless specialist,” said Rita Megling, senior vice president of marketing for Nu Horizons. “H&D’s world-class Wi-Fi system solutions are supported on leading Microcontroller platforms, and together with its platform partner Atmel®, offers compliant Wi-Fi software that allows for quick customer design turnaround. Their Wi-Fi solutions offer ultra low power, small size and low cost and are used in a wide range of applications within the energy control, digital media, fitness, healthcare, industrial control, retail, and location and tracking markets.”

“The excellent logistics and technical sales capabilities offered by Nu Horizons give potential customers around the world immediate access to H&D’s technology,” added Pär Bergsten, CEO for H&D Wireless AB. “Our Wi-Fi solutions are deemed best in class, and we also offer our customers with reference designs support for multimedia and telematics applications that reduces the end customer design effort and cost. Nu Horizons successful demand creation model should bring H&D many new opportunities to make wireless sensor and multimedia data available over the internet.”

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Lattice Semiconductor today announced that effective immediately Nu Horizons Electronics Corp.  will distribute the full range of Lattice products on a global basis. Nu Horizons currently distributes Lattice products throughout the Asia Pacific region.

“Nu Horizons Electronics is very excited to expand globally with Lattice,” said Kent Smith, President of Nu Horizons Global Distribution Division. “Lattice is one of the world’s leading providers of FPGAs, PLDs, Programmable Clock and Power Management devices, software design tools and IP cores, and our sales and engineering teams around the world are extremely familiar with programmable logic technologies. Lattice is an ideal match, enabling us to provide innovative product choices for our customers in every region.”

“Lattice is extremely pleased to welcome Nu Horizons Electronics as one of our global distribution partners,” said Stacy Fender, Lattice’s Corporate Vice President of Sales. “Nu Horizons is well-known for its demand creation abilities, seamless global infrastructure, world-class logistics, expert technical knowledge and award winning customer service. We are pleased with Nu Horizons’ performance in Asia, and are confident they will provide superb customer support and expand our opportunities to reach new customers.”

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Nu Horizons Electronics Corp. (NASDAQ:NUHC), a leading global distributor of advanced technology semiconductor, display, illumination, power, system and telecommunication solutions; today announced that Martin Kent, a 35-year veteran of the semiconductor distribution industry, has been appointed as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer effective May 3, 2010. Arthur Nadata, a founder of the Company and currently the Company’s Executive Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer, will serve as the Company’s Non-Executive Chairman. Richard Schuster, also a founder of the Company, will remain as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company and President of Nu Horizons’ passive components segment, NIC Components.

Arthur Nadata stated, “We are delighted to bring someone of Martin’s experience and ability on as CEO to lead Nu Horizons. We believe that his prior industry experience as CEO of Abacus Group, Plc, will be invaluable in running Nu Horizons. We were impressed with Martin’s success in growing Abacus Group, Plc until its acquisition in January 2009, both organically and through acquisitions in Europe, to a company with approximately $500 million in sales for their fiscal year ended September 30, 2008. His familiarity with our products and geographic markets should result in a smooth transition for our customers, suppliers and employees.”

“Since founding the Company in 1982, it has truly been an honor and pleasure serving Nu Horizons these past 28 years and helping to build Nu Horizons into a global distribution leader with approximately $670 million in sales for fiscal 2010,” said Mr. Nadata. “With great people, a strong balance sheet, and a strong platform in place, combined with Martin’s wealth of experience to draw on in leading the Company, Nu Horizons has a bright future and I am looking forward to helping insure a smooth seamless transition.”

“I am excited to have the opportunity to take on the position of CEO of Nu Horizons,” stated Mr. Martin Kent. “Arthur has, in conjunction with his management team, taken Nu Horizons to a strong position in the electronics distribution market. I believe we can continue to build on these strong foundations and carry on developing a business that offers an excellent service to its customers, strong support for its suppliers and a level of profitability that allows investment for the future and generates a positive return on investment for its shareholders,” concluded Mr. Kent.

In a related action, the Company’s Board of Directors will vote to expand the size of the Board to nine members and appoint Mr. Kent to the Board to fill the vacancy as of the effective date of the agreement.

In connection with Mr. Kent’s employment as president and chief executive officer, he will be granted 360,000 inducement stock options. The stock options will have an exercise price equal to the closing stock price on the first trading day following the execution of his agreement; a term of 10 years from the date of grant; and become exercisable in four equal annual installments commencing on the first anniversary of the date of grant although they will not be exercisable unless the closing stock price of the common stock is no less than $5.00 per share for at least 10 consecutive trading days prior to the date of exercise.

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Nu Horizons Electronics Corp, Names New President of Distribution Division

Nu Horizons Electronics Corp., a leading global distributor of advanced technology semiconductor, display, illumination, power, system and telecommunication solutions, today announced that it has promoted Kent Smith to serve as president of the company’s global distribution division. Smith’s appointment is effective immediately, and he will report directly to Nu Horizons’ executive chairman and interim chief executive officer, Arthur Nadata. Smith was recently appointed a corporate officer of Nu Horizons Electronics Corp. on January 5, 2010.

Smith joined Nu Horizons seven years ago and most recently served as executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, a position he assumed in 2008. Immediately prior, Smith served as senior vice president of sales, Americas, where he was responsible for business development and supplier relationships. He has held a number of sales roles within Nu Horizons, each with higher levels of responsibility.

“Kent has played a key role in driving our sales growth through the economic challenges of the previous year,” said Arthur Nadata, executive chairman and interim chief executive officer for Nu Horizons. “His experience, coupled with his leadership skills and ability to both motivate and continually develop our sales and engineering teams provide him with a strong foundation to build upon the success of our company. In his new role, Kent will continue to focus on forging strong customer and supplier relationships and further strengthening our position around the world as a leading demand creation distributor.”

“I am looking forward to serving Nu Horizons in this new capacity,” added Smith. “There are opportunities to improve our competitive position in every marketplace, and I am eager to challenge our global team to target further growth, enhance profitability and provide our customers with the highest level of support.”

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Nu Horizons Electronics signs European distribution deal with Microsoft

Nu Horizons Electronics has been appointed as a Windows® Embedded Authorised Distributor for Microsoft, franchised across the UK, Eire and Germany. The deal makes Nu Horizons one of only eight Microsoft Windows® Embedded Authorised Distributors in Europe. Nu Horizons has also become a Microsoft Windows® Embedded Partner and the company will work with the existing ecosystem of Windows® Embedded Partners and Microsoft OEM customers to offer training, access to product information and hands-on consultancy.

“We are delighted that Microsoft has entered into this agreement with Nu Horizons as a Windows® Embedded Authorised Distributor,” states Phil Gee, Vice President of Sales EMEA for Nu Horizons Electronics. “Customers can now get industry leading embedded operating systems and complementary embedded processing products from Atmel, Marvell and Xilinx, plus peripheral products, all from the same source. Nu Horizons will now work with Microsoft to drive the Windows® Embedded brand as the flagship of their offering to build market share in the embedded space.”

The Windows Embedded product portfolio includes: Windows® Embedded CE for small-footprint devices that require a componentised, real-time operating system; Windows® Embedded Standard (the next generation of Windows® XP Embedded), a fully componentised version of which is scalable as low as 40MB with a bootable kernel; Windows® Embedded POSReady (the next generation of Windows® Embedded Point of Service), targeted at point of service applications; the Windows® Embedded Enterprise Family, which are fully functional versions of Microsoft’s Windows desktop operating systems for applications such as kiosks; and Windows® Embedded Server, a fully functional version of Microsoft’s server operating systems.

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Nu Horizons UK MD Tony Frere Retires

Nu Horizons Electronics has announced that UK managing director, Tony Frere, is retiring from the company on December 31st, 2009. Frere, together with David Zelkha and Geoff Rose, founded DT Electronics in 1988, initially distributing electronic components into the broadcast industry.

They built the distributor into a £18 million business by 2006 through focusing on delivering in-depth technical support for customers using advanced semiconductors and power electronics devices. While the markets served by the company expanded into other areas, it remained the UK’s leading component supplier into the broadcast sector, securing numerous customer and supplier awards.

Nu Horizons Electronics Corp., the world’s 5th largest publicly quoted semiconductor distributor, purchased DT Electronics in August 2006, since which time annual UK sales have grown to around £25 million, despite the present economic downturn.

Frere said, “Nu Horizons was a good match for DT Electronics. We shared the same philosophy of recruiting very strong technical support teams as semiconductor manufacturers came to rely upon distributors for demand creation. Nu Horizons brought new franchises and a global perspective to our UK operations, so it really was a matter of building on each others’ strengths after the acquisition. There’s now a very talented team of enthusiastic and capable people to take over the reins and I am sure that the business will enjoy future success.”

Arthur Nadata, Executive Chairman and Acting CEO of Nu Horizons, added: “Tony did a great job of building DT Electronics into a successful and highly respected business. Since the firm became part of Nu Horizons, he has been instrumental in building a team that will continue the values of the company he founded – great technical support and a passionate commitment to customer service.”

Frere’s successor has not yet been named but Phil Gee, VP Sales Europe, will run the Coventry-based UK business in the interim.

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Nu Horizons opens purpose-built training facility in Coventry with two full-day seminars

Nu Horizons Electronics will open its brand new purpose-built training facility in Coventry with two training seminars next month. As part of the company’s XpressTrack program of training events, inaugural workshops will be held on November 4th and 5th based on Atmel technology.

The training facility is attached to Nu Horizons’ UK headquarters in Coventry and has been specially commissioned due to the success of Nu Horizons’ XpressTrack training workshops. There are more than 30 XpressTrack events scheduled across Europe for 2009, covering both analogue and digital technologies. The seminars include technology reviews and hands-on laboratory sessions with the latest advanced reference designs.

The training facility’s first workshop will be held on November 4th, on Atmel’s QTouch technology. Presenting technical overviews of QMatrix, QWheel and QSlider, the seminar will be useful for customers with any level of experience with Atmel products. The cost of the QTouch seminar is £99, and attendees will receive development kits including an EVK1040A, an ATAVRTS2080A, an ATAVRTS2080B and an ATAVRISP-mkII. Together these kits are worth around £300. The second training workshop, on November 5th, will be an introduction to Atmel’s cutting-edge 32-bit Cortex ARM microcontrollers, the ATSAM3 range. The day will provide an introduction to ARM Cortex-M3 technology including programming models and the Thumb2 instruction set; interrupt execution, power management and debugging features; and porting to Cortex-M3.

The Cortex seminar will cost £99 and attendees will receive ATSAM3U-EK and ATSAM-ICE development kits worth around £200. For anyone wishing to attend both seminars, Nu Horizons is offering a discounted price of £179 to cover both days.

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Sharp becomes Nu Horizons first major European LED, optoelectronics and LCD module franchise

Nu Horizons Electronics has signed a distribution agreement with Sharp Microelectronics Europe for the UK and Nordic territories, effective September 1st. Nu Horizons currently distributes Sharp’s electronic components in North America but this deal marks the distributor’s first major LED, optoelectronics and display module franchise in European markets. Nu Horizons will have rights to distribute Sharp Microelectronics’ lines of optoelectronics, LEDs, laser diodes, CMOS image sensors, power supply devices and RF components in the UK and Nordic region, plus Sharp’s LCD module range in the Nordic region only. In Nordic, Nu Horizons trades as C-88 AS.

“This new agreement builds on a very successful existing relationship between Nu Horizons and Sharp in North America,” comments Rick Fullarton, Distribution Sales Manager Northern Europe at Sharp Microelectronics Europe. “Nu Horizons’ combination of world-class engineering support, technical sales and marketing resources, alongside their clear focus on demand creation, makes them a perfect fit for Sharp Microelectronics Europe.”

“Sharp is a global technology leader and we are delighted to be entering the LED, optoelectronics and display arenas with them as a partner,” said Phil Gee, Nu Horizons‘ Vice President Sales EMEA. “Nu Horizons is a recognised global leader with respect to design-in support and resources. Our customers throughout the UK and Nordic regions will benefit from Sharp’s cutting-edge technology combined with new levels of technical support.”

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