PLUS CORPORATION OF AMERICA ACQUIRES Lightware, INC.
Strategic acquisition by PLUS positions the company for accelerated
North American market growth;
Lightware brand, sales, and marketing channels to remain independent.
ALLENDALE, NEW JERSEY/BEAVERTON, OREGON, January
2, 2001 - PLUS Corporation of America and Lightware, Inc. today
announced that PLUS has acquired Lightware, along with all of
its assets and trademarks. According to a joint announcement made
today by PLUS Corporation of America President Tom Oishi and Lightware
President and Chief Operating Officer Al Patz, the acquisition was
completed on December 31, 2000 with the approval of all Lightware
shareholders. Both PLUS and Lightware are privately held corporations.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Lightware's Al Patz , along
with all other current Lightware management, will remain in their
current positions with the company. Furthermore, both companies
will continue to maintain independent brands, as well as sales and
marketing channels.
"Since 1994, Lightware has built a very solid brand and a profitable
business model by serving the needs of mobile communications professionals
in corporate, training, education, government, and consumer market
channels," PLUS' Oishi said today. "They have become one of today's
fastest growing multimedia projector companies because of their
unique ability to design quality products that deliver strong feature
sets at reasonable prices. We expect Lightware to continue to lead
this very important and growing market segment, backed now by the
additional financial resources of a $1.5-billion PLUS Corporation
Group."
According to Oishi, the acquisition of Lightware perfectly complements
the PLUS product development and marketing strategy, which focuses
on providing a superior performance value to mobile communications
professionals who seek the very best in feature sets and performance
quality. With Lightware concentrating on expanding its direct sales
activities to the price conscious segment of the projector marketplace
and PLUS focused squarely on the continued support of the ProAV
performance segment of the DLP market, it is expected that the two
companies will achieve significant new levels of sales and market
share growth. What's more, while Lightware will certainly benefit
from PLUS manufacturing expertise, the company will continue to
retain its own manufacturing relationships, as needed to meet specific
market and customer requirements.
"We are very pleased to become a very important part of a much larger
company that can help us to achieve our aggressive long-term growth
projections," today said Lightware's Al Patz. "PLUS understands
the Lightware philosophy and corporate culture. They understand
and appreciate our total commitment to providing our customers with
price-sensitive value. And they don't want to change the formula
for our success! We believe the bringing together of these two great
companies - Lightware and PLUS - will quickly result in significant
new customer benefits that will shape the mobile projector marketplace
for many years to come."
About Lightware: Lightware's LCD projectors are used for computer
and video presentations in business, training and educational applications.
The veteran management and product development teams have more than
50 years of projection industry experience and hold numerous patents.
For more information, contact Lightware, Inc., 9610 SW Sunshine
Court, Suite 300, Beaverton, Ore., 97005. Telephone: (800) 211-9001.
E-mail: marketing@Lightware.com. The full line of Lightware projectors
are available directly from Lightware at www.Lightware.com or by
calling 1-800-211-9001, as well as at select audio-visual resellers.
About PLUS Corporation of America: Headquartered in Allendale,
New Jersey, PLUS Corporation of America is an industry leading
manufacturer and marketer of extremely sophisticated, ultra-lightweight,
and ultra-portable digital projectors, full featured electronic
copyboards, and real-time interactive white boards. PLUS communications
and information products are designed to provide mobile communications
professionals as well as medical professionals, attorneys, teachers,
trainers, and government agencies with an unprecedented degree of
high performance value. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of PLUS Corporation of Japan, a 50-year old, $1.5-billion manufacturer
and marketer of presentation, office, and communications products.
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