Mentor Graphics obtains Glass Lewis support for all of its director nominees

WILSONVILLE, USA: Mentor Graphics Corp. commented on proxy advisory reports from Glass Lewis & Co. and Institutional Shareholder Services.

Mentor Graphics is pleased that Glass Lewis is recommending that shareholders support all of Mentor Graphics’ nominees and reject all of Icahn’s nominees. Mentor Graphics is pleased that ISS rejected Schechter, an Icahn employee and one of his nominees.

The company believes that ISS’s recommendation of the other two Icahn nominees reflects its general tendency to support dissidents seeking minority slates. Mentor Graphics believes that ISS ignored the serious issues raised by the Icahn platform, which seeks to provide Icahn with a liquidity event through a public sale process that has substantial regulatory and commercial risks and is likely to destroy shareholder value.

The company urges its shareholders to elect the board members who have brought Mentor Graphics shareholders the following results and strong outlook:

* Mentor Graphics’ share price has outperformed the NASDAQ index and the company’s two closest competitors, generating a return of 322 percent in the approximately two-year period between when the NASDAQ reached its lowest point as a result of the financial crisis and when Icahn announced his unsolicited proposal to acquire Mentor Graphics. In the same period, Synopsys returned 65 percent, Cadence returned 181 percent and the NASDAQ returned 123 percent.

* Mentor Graphics is confident that by continuing to execute its strategy, the company can continue to grow faster than the underlying growth of traditional EDA.

* Mentor Graphics expects to continue to deliver excellent results and to return approximately $150 million of capital to shareholders through stock repurchases or dividends over the next three years.

The Mentor Graphics Board of Directors urges shareholders to vote FOR the company’s highly qualified director nominees on the WHITE proxy card today.