Adaptec to acquire RAID company DPT

SINGAPORE, 3 November 1999 - Adaptec, Inc. and Distributed Processing Technology (DPT) have announced that they have signed a letter of intent under which Adaptec will acquire DPT for US$235 million.

The purchase price will include cash for the outstanding shares of DPT plus the costs of assuming the DPT stock option plan. DPT, a privately-held company based in Maitland, Florida, is a leading supplier of high-performance storage solutions. DPT products include adapters, RAID controllers, storage subsystems, and management software.

Adaptec cites the acquisition as an attempt to strengthen its efforts to broaden solutions in the high-growth RAID market, and focuses Adaptec on building leadership in all RAID segments. The demand for storage capacity continues to grow explosively, and is fueled by the Internet and user demands for on-line access to information.

RAID provides high performance and enhanced data protection for storage, and is important in a non-stop computing world as the RAID market grows to encompass entry level needs, external RAID, and even high-end storage area network (SAN) solutions. Said Bob Schultz, chief operating officer of Adaptec. "The combined forces of Adaptec and DPT should offer us revenue and market growth opportunities. DPT brings tremendous experience in the RAID market, broadens our customer base into UNIX, and enhances our complementary customer relationships. Our combined RAID engineering team... should help us accelerate product introductions and expand into new market segments." Said DPT president Steve Goldman: "Our shared vision with Adaptec on RAID, coupled with their technology, market strength, and service and support infrastructure were compelling factors in our decision to join Adaptec. Adaptec and DPT together should be a formidable force in RAID controllers, which are expected to experience tremendous growth over the next few years."

After the merger, Adaptec will continue to support existing products as they are today and will focus on meeting customer obligations and commitments. Longer-term, Adaptec aims to merge the two companies' product lines to create the most complete line of RAID storage solutions available. DPT's technologies provide Adaptec the opportunity to enter the external RAID and SAN markets, and also expand Adaptec's business into UNIX storage.