ESI Acquires Chip Star Inc. and Restructures Capacitor Manufacturing Equipment Business
Portland, Oregon (June 26, 1997) -- Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ - ESIO) announced the acquisition of Chip Star Inc., a privately held company based in San Marcos, California. Chip Star provides innovative termination systems for miniature surface mount ceramic capacitor producers world-wide. Chip Star sales were approximately $11 million for ESI's fiscal year ended May 31, 1997.
Chip Star was founded in 1993 by Denver Braden and Angelo Mitchell. Mr. Braden is a founder of Palomar Systems, Inc., an ESI subsidiary based in Escondido, California. Both Mr. Braden and Mr. Mitchell have joined ESI and are well known as experts in miniature capacitor manufacturing.
In announcing the combination, Donald R. VanLuvanee, ESI President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Denver, Angelo and the Chip Star team have built a successful business focused on innovative systems for applying contacts to surface mount capacitors. Chip Star and our Palomar subsidiary will provide leadership solutions for capacitor manufacturers around the world. The Chip Star - ESI combination creates a powerful force for developing high value products to serve our global customer base."
The terms of the acquisition include exchanging 700,000 shares of ESI common stock for all of the capital stock of Chip Star. These shares include provisions for all outstanding Chip Star stock options. The transaction will be accounted for as a pooling-of-interests and is expected to be accretive to earnings for ESI's fiscal year ended May 31, 1997. ESI plans to release 1997 earnings on July 7, 1997, after the market close.
Mr. VanLuvanee also announced that Robert Belter is now the President and General Manager of Palomar Systems, Inc. and a Corporate Vice President. He is a 20 year veteran of the capacitor industry, including president/general manager positions at Kyocera Northwest and Johanson Dielectrics Inc. Mr. Belter is responsible for the capacitor manufacturing equipment business unit, including both Palomar and Chip Star.
Mark Klug, Corporate Vice President, now reports to Mr. Belter and is responsible for the capacitor test segment of the business.
Statements in this press release may include forward looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ, either better or worse, from those discussed. Such risks and uncertainties are numerous and are identified in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and interim reports on Form 10-Q for fiscal 1997.
About ESI
ESI, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, designs and manufactures sophisticated products used around the world in electronics manufacturing including: laser manufacturing systems for semiconductor yield improvement; production and test equipment for the manufacture of surface mount ceramic capacitors; laser trim systems for precise electrical tuning of circuits; precision micro-via drilling systems; and machine vision systems. |
