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Saturday, 02/26/2005 12:31:07 PM

Saturday, February 26, 2005 12:31:07 PM

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Kodak buys Creo for $980m
Creo CEO Amos Michelson: The economy of scale gained by combining resources will allow us to speed up product development.
Globes correspondent 31 Jan 05 14:36


Creo Inc. (TSX:CRE; NASDAQ:CREO) announced today that it had entered into an agreement to be acquired by Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK). Kodak will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Creo at a cash price of $16.50 per share or approximately $980 million.
Creo has some 4,000 employees worldwide, of whom about 1,000 are in Israel

Kodak currently has no pre-print systems, which are Creo's field of activity. Kodak sells perishables for the pre-print industry, and products that enable transfer from computer to plate. It cooperated with Creo in the printing plate market until 2003. It seems that one of the main results of the acquisition of Creo will be that Kodak will move into higher gear in the plates area, in which Creo has recently bought several enterprises. Creo claims to have a third of this market.

In 2003, Kodak declared it would spend $3 billion on acquisitions, and since then it has bought companies for a total of some $1.9 billion. Last year, Kodak bought Scitex Digital Printing, and it has bought four other digital printing companies since 2003.

Creo itself is in the throes of a control battle. Robert Burton, who controls 5.8% of Creo, has declared his intention of replacing the company's Israel chairman and CEO Amos Michelson, and of making other dramatic changes. Since the battle began last October, Creo shares have gained some 75%.

Creo CEO Amos Michelson said, "Today we conclude a strategic review process that began last summer. The proposed transaction will not only generate immediate return for Creo shareholders but will also benefit our customers through the combination of leading prepress equipment and consumables. By uniting our strengths, Creo and Kodak can continue to actively drive the evolution of the graphic communications industry while delivering a complete line of the highest-quality, most competitive products and services in our industry. The economy of scale gained by combining resources will allow us to speed up product development and deliver new innovations and breakthrough solutions to the market."

"Kodak also stands to gain a great deal from this transaction," continued Michelson, "including a pipeline of promising products from Creo's leading research and development organization, direct access to the largest installed base of computer-to-plate (CTP) and workflow systems in the world, and access to our extremely loyal and supportive customer base."

The boards of directors of Kodak and Creo have approved the proposed transaction, subject to certain conditions, including shareholder approval and receipt of customary regulatory and court approvals. A meeting of Creo shareholders to approve the transaction is expected to be held on March 29, 2005

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 31, 2005

Midas