Silicon Motion Technology Corporation Updates First Quarter 2009 Guidance

TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 7, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Silicon Motion Technology
Corporation (Nasdaq:SIMO) (the "Company"), a leading fabless semiconductor
company that designs, develops, and markets universally compatible,
high-performance, low-power semiconductor solutions for the multimedia consumer
electronics market, today announced an update to its first quarter 2009
financial guidance.

The Company now expects:

Q1 2009 revenue

New guidance: down 30 to 35% sequentially

Prior guidance: down 20 to 30% sequentially

Q1 2009 gross margin

New guidance: 43 to 44% range

Prior guidance: 48 to 50% range

Q1 2009 operating expense

New guidance: same as prior guidance

Prior guidance: $12 to 13 million (excluding stock-based
compensation, acquisition-related charges, and one time items)
"In the first quarter, our business continued to be impacted by the effects of
the global economic slowdown. While we continued to execute well, we saw more
limited availability of NAND flash in the first quarter as the flash industry
reduced capacity and utilization rates. This in turn negatively affected the
supply of flash components to our customers and their related procurement of
controllers," said Wallace Kou, President and CEO of Silicon Motion. "Gross
margin for the first quarter was also weaker than planned. Because the
transition by the flash industry to next-generation, sub-50nm NAND products was
slower than expected, a larger proportion of our sales came from lower margin
legacy controllers. This issue was exacerbated in the first quarter by more
competition among controller suppliers for the smaller addressable market. That
said, while our first quarter sales and gross margin underperformed, we remain
optimistic about our long-term prospects and product roadmap. We continue to
work hard on bringing to market next-generation solutions for all of our three
product lines and expect to benefit from the sales of these next generation
solutions in the near future."

About Silicon Motion:

We are a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops and markets high
performance, low-power semiconductor solutions for the multimedia consumer
electronics market. We have three major product lines: mobile storage, mobile
communications, and multimedia SoCs. Our mobile storage business is composed of
microcontrollers used in NAND flash memory storage products such as flash memory
cards, USB flash drives, SSDs, embedded flash applications, and card readers.
Our mobile communications business is composed of mobile TV IC solutions, CDMA
RF ICs, and electronic toll collection RF ICs. Our multimedia SoCs business is
composed of products that support portable multimedia players, DAB systems, PC
cameras, and embedded graphics applications.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including without limitation,
statements about Silicon Motion's updated expected first quarter 2009 guidance,
revenue, gross margin and operating expense, all of which reflect management's
estimates based on information available at this time of this press release.
While Silicon Motion believes these revised estimates to be meaningful, these
amounts could differ materially from actual reported amounts for the first
quarter. Forward-looking statements also include, without limitation, statements
regarding trends and developments in the global economic market affecting our
business, the multimedia consumer electronics market and our future results of
operations, financial condition and business prospects. In some cases, you can
identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will,"
"should," "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate,"
"predict," "potential," "continue," or the negative of these terms or other
comparable terminology. Although such statements are based on our own
information and information from other sources we believe to be reliable, you
should not place undue reliance on them. These statements involve risks and
uncertainties, and actual market trends or our actual results of operations,
financial condition or business prospects may differ materially from those
expressed or implied in these forward looking statements for a variety of
reasons. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our
belief in the outcome of any claim or lawsuit, including those uncertainties
relating to litigation filed against the Company relating to whether its
products are covered by patents not owned by the Company; unpredictable volume
and timing of customer orders, which are not fixed by contract but vary on a
purchase order basis; the loss of one or more key customers or the significant
reduction, postponement, rescheduling or cancellation of orders from these
customers or the ability of any of our customers to pay us in a timely fashion;
integration of our recently announced acquisitions, general economic conditions,
including recent developments with regard to the global economic downturn or
conditions in the semiconductor or multimedia consumer electronics markets;
decreases in the overall average selling prices of our products; changes in the
relative sales mix of our products; changes in our cost of finished goods; the
availability, pricing, and timeliness of delivery of other components and raw
materials used in our customers' products; transitions made from one generation
of products to another within the industries that we operate; our customers'
sales outlook, purchasing patterns, and inventory adjustments based on consumer
demands and general economic conditions; our ability to successfully develop,
introduce, and sell new or enhanced products in a timely manner; and the timing
of new product announcements or introductions by us or by our competitors. For
additional discussion of these risks and uncertainties and other factors, please
see the documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F filed on May 12, 2008. We
assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which apply only
as of the date of this press release.

-0-
CONTACT: Silicon Motion Technology Corporation
Investor Contact:
Jason Tsai, Director of IR and Strategy Investor Relations
+1 408 519 7259
Fax: +1 408 519 7101
jtsai@siliconmotion.com
Selina Hsieh, Investor Relations
+886 3 552 6888 x2311
Fax: +886 3 560 0336
ir@siliconmotion.com
Media Contact:
Sara Hsu, Project Manager
+886 2 2219 6688 x3509
Fax: +886 2 2219 6868
sara.hsu@siliconmotion.com