NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 17, 2002--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it affirmed its double-'B'-minus corporate credit rating on Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and revised its outlook on the company to negative from stable. The action reflected ongoing stresses in the data networking and computing markets and the company's diminished financial flexibility. San Jose, Calif.-based Cypress Semiconductor manufactures specialty memory, timing, and logic semiconductors for the networking, wireless, and computing markets. Cypress has about $470 million in debt outstanding. "Cypress faces substantial price pressures and soft market conditions," said Standard&Poor's credit analyst Bruce Hyman. "If the company does not substantially improve its profitability, or if business conditions continue to erode, ratings could be lowered." The
