LOS ANGELES, June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Chapman Capital L.L.C., investment advisor to two investment funds that together own 5.3% of the common shares of Vitesse Semiconductor (Pink Sheets: VTSS) ("Vitesse" or "the Company"), today announced its demand that Vitesse immediately schedule a Meeting of Stockholders to elect directors to the Company's Board of Directors.
Robert L. Chapman, Jr., Managing Member of Chapman Capital, commented, "In breach of the most basic tenet of corporate governance, Vitesse's beleaguered owners, in a heightened state of distress following the Company's options backdating scandal and resultant nearly two year lapse of audited financial statements, were permitted last to elect directors to their company's Board of Directors on January 24, 2006, nearly 17 months ago. Jim Cole, perplexingly still head of Vitesse's Corporate Governance Committee despite being held responsible by major past and present owners for the Company's deep-seated problems, and who also holds a seat on Vitesse's Audit Committee that has failed to produce nearly two years of audited financials and Compensation Committee that appears to have stuffed the pockets of Mr. Cole's friends and business partners in their capacities as CEO, EVP of Finance, and Chief Financial Officer, must resign from the Board immediately."
Chapman Capital today filed a Schedule 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing the circumstances and background underlying its views. Such filing is available at http://www.sec.gov/.
Chapman Capital L.L.C. is a Los Angeles, CA based investment advisor focusing on takeover and turnaround investing. The firm is the registered investment advisor to Chap-Cap Partners II Master Fund, Ltd. and Chap-Cap Activist Partners Master Fund, Ltd., the combined owners of approximately 5.3% of Vitesse Semiconductor's common shares. Over the past eleven years, Chapman Capital has agitated successfully for the restructuring or sale of over twenty five publicly-traded companies, including recently closed transactions involving Entertainment Distribution Company, Inc./Glenayre Messaging, Carreker Corporation and Sunterra Corporation, and pending transactions involving Embarcadero Technologies, Inc., Agile Software Corporation and Howie Lutnick's eSpeed, Inc. Mr. Chapman previously was employed by Goldman Sachs & Co., Scudder Stephens, & Clark, and NatWest Bank USA. Related news releases, as well as additional information on Chapman Capital, may be found at http://www.chapmancapital.com/.
Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation is a Camarillo, CA based technology firm that designs, develops and markets a diverse portfolio of high-performance, cost-competitive semiconductor solutions for communications and storage networks worldwide. Engineering excellence and dedicated customer service distinguish Vitesse as an industry leader in Gigabit Ethernet LAN, Ethernet-over-SONET, Advanced Switching, Fibre Channel, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), Optical Transport and other applications. Vitesse innovation empowers customers to deliver superior products for Enterprise, Access, Metro and Core applications. Vitesse news releases, as well as additional information on the Company, can be found at http://www.vitesse.com/.
