Acquisition: Oak Technology Acquires ViewPoint Technology, Inc., a Privately Held Developer of CD-RW Technology

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, August 3, 1998

Oak Technology, a provider of high-performance semiconductors for the optical storage market, Tuesday announced that it has completed its acquisition of ViewPoint Technology, Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based privately held company that has focused on developing solutions for the growing CD-RW drive market.

The Company purchased all of the outstanding shares of ViewPoint Technology for $10.1 million in cash. The acquisition will be accounted for under the purchase method of accounting.

The acquisition enables Oak to obtain key intellectual property critical for its future CD-RW product roadmap. ViewPoint recently developed a controller that supports high encoding speeds for next-generation CD-RW drives. Complementing ViewPoint's encoder capability is Oak's proven expertise in the block decoder arena. "This acquisition represents an important milestone in our strategy to maintain and build on the lead we currently have in the rewritable controller market," stated Richard Black, president of Oak Technology. Oak's existing OTI-975 controller is shipping today in a majority of CD-RW drives worldwide.

Founded in 1987, Oak Technology, Inc. designs, develops and markets high-performance semiconductors and related software to original equipment manufacturers worldwide who serve the optical storage, consumer electronics, and digital office equipment markets. Oak has subsidiaries in Japan (Oak Technology K.K.); Taiwan (Oak Technology, Taiwan); Andover, Mass. (Pixel Magic, Inc.); and Bristol, England (Oak Technology Limited). Additional information about Oak Technology and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at www.oaktech.com.