SiliconBeat

Altera, the San Jose maker of programmable semiconductors, revealed in a regulatory filing Friday that it entered into a contract on May 2 to buy back shares under the terms of a plan drawn up under S.E.C. Rule 10b5-1 that “covers the period from June 2, 2008 to July 18, 2008, unless the Plan is earlier terminated.”

Under the plan, the company could buy back up to $100 million worth of its own stock, or 7
million shares, whichever is lower. Altera shares closed Friday at $23.14, up nearly 20
percent so far this year. At that price the company could buy about 4.3 million shares. Its
share price would have to fall to around $14.30 if Altera were to be able to buy back 7
million of them.