Acquisition of WaveMark Technologies, Inc., Positions Motorola For Leadership in Advanced, Web-Driven Imaging Market - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, June 12, 2000

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire printer acceleration specialist WaveMark Technologies, Inc., in a transaction valued at $30 million. This move is an integral part of Motorola's strategy to deliver advanced, smart imaging solutions to the home and office. The combination of Motorola's leading core processing and communications technologies with WaveMark's high-speed printer expertise provides imaging manufacturers with complete DigitalDNA embedded solutions that enable faster time-to-market, gives them flexibility to develop product differentiating features, and improves cost efficiency. This acquisition positions Motorola to be a leading systems provider in the imaging market as it evolves to empower the web-enabled applications in the homes and work places of the future. Motorola anticipates completing the transaction, which is subject to WaveMark shareholder approval, at the end of the second quarter.

"The traditional printer hardware market will remain under price pressures for the foreseeable future, and any future margin growth opportunities for manufacturers will be driven by a combination of chip and software technology that enable advanced imaging solutions from tomorrow's web-enabled applications, such as televisions, cellular phones and other hand-held devices," according to Marco Boer, consulting partner, IT Strategies Inc.

"As we become more accustomed to using the web as our highway to receive information, the need for efficient processing of this information will become more important. Motorola's acquisition of WaveMark Technologies puts it in a position to become the 'glue' in printers, enabling rapid and efficient color processing from web-derived content and information," Boer said. "The acquisition has provided Motorola with a needed springboard to enable its customers to put value back into their printers to make their printers more efficient at handling the avalanche of web-derived content."

"As consumers employ more imagery and use of color in documents and web pages, the amount of processing required to print these documents continues to grow at an accelerated rate," said Ray Burgess, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's Imaging and Entertainment Solutions business group, part of the Semiconductor Products Sector. "By combining imaging and processing technologies from Motorola and WaveMark, the brains within printers are expected to now be able to quickly and accurately process and produce these image-rich documents."

Located in Burlington, Mass., WaveMark Technologies is a leading provider of PDL (page description language) acceleration technology, printer controller designs and platform-independent color image processing and rendering technologies. WaveMark develops integrated, modular software products, along with firmware and ASIC technology, that enable high-speed printing of color and monochrome complex electronic documents both locally and across networks.

"WaveMark's high-quality color rendering, acceleration and printer controller reference designs in combination with Motorola's leading core processing and communication technologies forms a comprehensive system enabling customers to take advantage of the rapidly growing color image communications market," said Bob Downs, president and CEO of WaveMark Technologies. "Our mutual relationships and technology will greatly advance the solutions our customers are developing and help them reduce their time to market."

In connection with the acquisition, Motorola will assume WaveMark's imaging technology portfolio, including: RightColor, for high quality color rendering; PrintFast acceleration ASIC technology; PrintSet, their complete printer adaptation kit; and a variety of printer controller reference designs. It is anticipated that all WaveMark employees will become Motorola employees and will continue to work out of the Burlington, Mass., facility upon completion of the transaction. Additional terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

WaveMark designs, markets and supports high-performance embedded controller designs for printer and copier OEMs. Targeting the growing markets for Web printing solutions and color laser devices, WaveMark is developing technology that leverages its rich expertise in industry standard Page Description Languages (PDLs). Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Burlington, Mass., WaveMark has brought together a world-class engineering development team. For more information, visit the WaveMark Web site at www.wavemark.com

As the world's #1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector offers multiple DigitalDNA technologies that enable its customers to create "smart" products and new business opportunities in. The networking and computing, wireless communications, transportation, and imaging and entertainment markets. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $7.4 billion (USD) in 1999. http://www.motorola.com/semiconductors/