Special Charges

12 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2011

Notes to Financial Statements [Abstract]

4.	SPECIAL CHARGES

SST Acquisition

During fiscal 2011, the Company incurred $1.9 million of severance related and office closure costs associated with the acquisition of SST. See Note 2 for more information related to this acquisition.

Patent Licenses

During the three months ended June 30, 2009, the Company agreed to the terms of a patent license with an unrelated third-party and signed an agreement on July 9, 2009. The patent license settled alleged infringement claims. The total payment made to the third-party in July 2009 was $1.4 million, $1.2 million of which was expensed in the first quarter of fiscal 2010 and the remaining $0.2 million was recorded as a prepaid royalty that will be amortized over the remaining life of the patent, which expired in June 2010.

The Company entered into a patent portfolio license effective March 31, 2009 with an unrelated third-party that covers both issued patents and patent applications and settled alleged infringement claims. The total payment made to the third-party was $8.25 million, $4.0 million of which was expensed in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 and the remaining $4.25 million was recorded as a prepaid royalty that will be amortized over the estimated 20-year remaining life of the patents. The Company entered into another patent portfolio license with the same unrelated third party in March 2011 and $2.75 million was paid covering patent applications. The $2.75 million was recorded as a prepaid royalty that will be amortized over the life of the patents.

Expenses Associated with the Abandonment of the Atmel Acquisition

On October 2, 2008, the Company and ON Semiconductor Corporation announced that they had sent a proposal to the Board of Directors of Atmel Corporation to acquire Atmel for $5.00 per share in cash or a total of approximately $2.3 billion. On October 29, 2008, Atmel announced that its Board of Directors had determined that the unsolicited proposal was inadequate. On December 15, 2008, the Company delivered a written notification to Atmel regarding a proposed alternate slate of directors to be elected at Atmel's 2009 annual meeting. On February 10, 2009, the Company announced its termination of its consideration of a potential transaction with Atmel in light of the economic uncertainty and the lack of visibility with respect to Atmel's business not allowing the Company to put a value on Atmel. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company expensed $1.6 million of various costs associated with the terminated proposal.

In-Process Research and Development

During the third quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company completed its acquisition of Hampshire Company, a leader in the large format touch screen controller market. As a result of the acquisition, the Company incurred a $0.5 million in-process research and development charge in the third quarter of fiscal 2009.

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company completed the acquisition of HI-TECH Software, a provider of software development tools and compilers. As a result of the acquisition, the Company incurred a $0.2 million in-process research and development charge in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009.

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, the Company completed its acquisition of R&E International, a leader in developing innovative integrated circuits for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and other life-safety systems. As a result of the acquisition, the Company incurred a $0.2 million in-process research and development charge in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009.