Colibrys Acquires Applied MEMS Business

HOUSTON, Dec. 17 -- Colibrys SA, of Neuchatel, Switzerland, announced today it has completed the acquisition of the Applied MEMS subsidiary of seismic services provider Input/Output Inc. in an all-stock transaction. The new company will use the Colibrys name and will be based in Switzerland.
Colibrys makes high-performance MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) products and offers contract manufacturing services for MEMS devices to the defense, aerospace, telecommunications, life sciences, industrial imaging and energy industries.
I/O, based in Stafford, Texas, provides seismic acquisition equipment, software and planning and seismic processing services to the global oil and gas industry. The company's technologies are applied in land and marine environments, in traditional 2-D and 3-D surveys and in rapidly growing areas like time-lapse (4-D) reservoir monitoring and full-wave imaging. It has offices in the US, Canada, Europe, China, Russia and the Middle East.
I/O will retain a minority equity interest in the new company and hold a seat on the Colibrys board; it also will retain ownership of all intellectual property associated with the Applied MEMS business and will license this technology to Colibrys as part of the transaction. Colibrys will be I/O's supplier of MEMS accelerometers used in the company's VectorSeis digital, full-wave seismic sensors, and I/O will have preferential rights to Colibrys' MEMS technology for seismic applications involving natural resource extraction.
Bob Peebler, I/O's president and CEO, said, "We are convinced that MEMS-based sensors like VectorSeis will increasingly become the sensors of choice for seismic imaging in the oil and gas business. To drive the rapid adoption of MEMS-based seismic sensors, I/O believes that continuous improvements in the design and manufacture of the core MEMS technology will be required. Combining our Applied MEMS business with a high-end MEMS company such as Colibrys is the surest way to achieve our long-term objectives."

For more information, visit: www.i-o.com