StockerYale Stops Efforts to Acquire Navitar

SALEM, N.H., Dec. 23 -- StockerYale Inc., a provider of photonics-based products, announced today it is discontinuing efforts to acquire Navitar Inc., a Rochester, N.Y.-based manufacturer and supplier of optical lens systems and optical solutions for the machine vision and biomedical diagnostics industries. In addition, warrants for the purchase of 6,000,000 shares of StockerYale common stock that were previously granted by StockerYale to The Eureka Interactive Fund Ltd., an institutional investor, were canceled.

The parties initially announced the proposed acquisition on Nov. 9 and had signed a nonbinding letter of intent. The proposed transaction was subject, among other things, to the satisfactory completion of due diligence, the execution of a definitive purchase agreement and the closing of a financing transaction by StockerYale. Mark W. Blodgett, chairman and CEO of StockerYale, said, "Although we will be open to further discussions with Navitar, we will continue to search for other acquisition candidates that would provide benefits to our customers and increase value to our shareholders."

StockerYale, based in Salem, N.H., is an independent designer and manufacturer of structured light lasers, light emitting diodes, fiber optic and fluorescent illumination technologies and specialty optical fiber and phase masks for use in industries including machine vision, telecommunications, aerospace, defense and security, utilities, industrial inspection and medicine.

For more information, visit: www.stockeryale.com