Altera Corporation (Nasdaq:ALTR - News) today released the following statement from Nathan Sarkisian, the company's chief financial officer:

"In March, I informed Mr. A.A. (Tad) LaFountain, III, semiconductor securities analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, that I, our CEO, and our investor relations staff would no longer continue dialogue with him. I took this action because, in my view, we were having unproductive conversations on a topic for which we had irreconcilable differences. Consequently, on July 26, Mr. LaFountain chose to drop Altera coverage. Regrettably, as a result of our action and the ensuing press coverage, some have concluded that our intention was to manipulate opinion. In retrospect, our decision to disengage was in error, and I apologize to Mr. LaFountain, our investors, and the investment community.

"We have never discontinued relations or challenged an analyst because of a rating. The core of our differences with Mr. LaFountain is our share repurchase program which he asserts has destroyed shareholder value. We implemented our share repurchase program in 1996, and at that time our market capitalization was $1.2 billion. The program has since returned $1.5 billion in cash to shareholders -- more than their starting investment, and today the company is valued at $8.1 billion. We remain firmly committed to our share repurchase program.