ADIC Completes Acquisition of Storage Networking Pioneer Pathlight Technology; SAN Management, Connectivity and Virtualization Products to Expand ADIC Storage Solutions.

Business/High Tech Editors

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 2001

ADVANCED DIGITAL INFORMATION CORPORATION (Nasdaq:ADIC), today announced it has completed the acquisition of Pathlight Technology, Inc. through a merger of a wholly owned subsidiary of ADIC with Pathlight, in accordance with a merger agreement entered into on January 30, 2001.

Based in Ithaca, New York, Pathlight has been pioneering the technologies that enable networking of critical storage resources since 1994. The merged companies will offer a broad range of intelligent storage products including SAN management, connectivity, and virtualization products that complement ADIC's existing storage hardware and software solutions.

An aggregate of 10,300,000 shares of ADIC's common stock were issued to Pathlight's stockholders in the merger in exchange for all of the outstanding stock, warrants and stock options of Pathlight. Of these shares, 1,287,500 are being held in escrow pending satisfaction of certain potential liabilities or adjustments as provided in the merger agreement. The merger is expected to be accounted for as a pooling of interests.

"We are very pleased that we have closed the acquisition and can increase our focus on delivering solutions to the marketplace," commented Peter van Oppen, Chairman and CEO of ADIC. "The acquisition of Pathlight has been extremely well received by our customers, including our OEM partners, and we are confident of our combined ability to provide increasingly integrated storage solutions as a result of the merger."

The Company previously announced that Said Rahmani, Co-Founder of Pathlight, has become Executive Vice President of Research and Development for ADIC. It has also been noted that the merger will result in one-time charges of $10-12 million that will be reflected in the quarter ending July 31, 2001.

ADIC has also previously disclosed that this acquisition is expected to have a dilutive effect on the earnings per share of ADIC in fiscal 2001, including the restatement of prior periods on a pooled basis, but is expected to result in increased earnings per share in fiscal 2002.

About ADIC

Advanced Digital Information Corporation (Nasdaq:ADIC) is among the world's leading device-independent storage solutions provider to the open systems marketplace offering a broad range of products designed to enhance organizations' abilities to store, protect, manage and use their rapidly growing network data. ADIC solutions include automated storage libraries, storage management software, and storage networking (SAN/NAS) connectivity tools. ADIC storage products are available through a worldwide sales force and a global network of resellers and OEMs, including Dell, EMC, Fujitsu Siemens and IBM.

This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. The words "expect," "intend," "anticipate," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Reference is made to the Company's Annual Report Form on 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2000 and the Registration Statement on Form S-4 declared effective on April 6, 2001 for a more detailed description of factors that could affect the Company's actual results and the closing of the merger. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Further information about ADIC is available at http://www.adic.com.

ADIC is a registered trademark of Advanced Digital Information Corporation. All other product or service marks mentioned in this release should be considered the property of their respective owners.