WAM Buys Cerac for $25M

CLEVELAND, Jan. 17, 2006 -- Precious, non-precious and specialty metal products maker Williams Advanced Materials Inc. (WAM) of Buffalo, N.Y., has acquired privately held Cerac Inc., a provider of physical vapor deposition (PVD) and specialty inorganic materials, for $25 million.

WAM officials say that the company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Brush Engineered Materials Inc., and Cerac share a long history of product innovation and market growth in the optics industry. In recent years, they say, Cerac materials have been supplied to coat the lenses for WAM’s Visi-Lid window assemblies designed for hermetically sealing optoelectronic devices.

In a written statement to its customers and suppliers, Cerac officials said the company "will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of WAM, continuing to manufacture specialty inorganic chemicals and thin-film materials under the Cerac name at our facility in Milwaukee. The experienced and dedicated Cerac workforce also remains in place. Bart Ott, Cerac's former VP of sales and marketing, has been appointed VP and general manager."

Cerac, with 2005 revenues of approximately $20 million, has 120 employees at its Milwaukee facility. The company produces PVD and specialty inorganic materials for the precision optics, ophthalmics, semiconductor, security and laser and display technologies industries.

The purchase of Cerac is the second acquisition for WAM in the past three months and the third in the past year. In October 2005, WAM acquired privately held Thin Film Technology Inc. of Buellton, Calif., a maker of precision optical coatings, photolithography, thin-film hybrid circuits and specialized thin-film coatings and services for the defense, medical and other commercial markets. In May 2005, Williams’ Netherlands subsidiary acquired privately held OMC Scientific Holdings Ltd. (OMCS) of Limerick, Ireland. OMCS primarily provides precision cleaning and reconditioning services for PVD customers serving the magnetic and optical data storage, semiconductor and other technology-based growth markets.

WAM manufactures products at facilities in New York, California and Asia, and provides precision cleaning and reconditioning services for PVD customers at facilities in the US and Ireland. Major markets for WAM's products include magnetic and optical data storage, the wireless, semiconductor, photonic and hybrid segments of the microelectronics markets. For more information, visit: www.williams-adv.com/