Bel Acquires Current Concepts Inc.; Announces Formation of Bel Power Products Division.

Business Editors

JERSEY CITY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2001

Bel Fuse Inc. (Nasdaq:BELFA) (Nasdaq:BELFB) today announced that it has acquired Current Concepts Inc., a privately held research and development firm specializing in advanced DC/DC power converters based in Westborough, Mass.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Current Concepts will form the core of the newly formed Bel Power Products Division.

"We acquired Current Concepts and established Bel Power Products specifically to focus on the development of DC/DC power conversion components and modules to support our expanding list of customers in the telecommunications, networking and computing markets," said Daniel Bernstein, president of Bel Fuse.

"This is an exciting long-term growth opportunity that will allow us to leverage our established manufacturing, packaging and distribution capabilities by offering our customers complementary power products from a supplier they know and trust. The first of Bel's new power products are scheduled for launch later this year.

"We expect this acquisition to be accretive to earnings after the first year of operations," he said.

Current Concepts was founded by Mark Jutras and Mark Masera to focus on the development of next-generation multi-phase point-of-load DC/DC converters. These products are designed to power future generations of low-voltage silicon composing the base for high-speed microprocessors, memory chips and digital signal processors. Jutras and Masera both began their careers at Data General and together have more than 28 years of experience in designing DC/DC converters.

Jutras, most recently vice president of Engineering at Artesyn Technologies (NASDAQ:ATSN), was formerly director of Engineering at IPD (now Power One Corp. (NASDAQ:PWER)). Prior to serving as director of Engineering at Artesyn Technologies, Masera was Engineering manager at IPD. Jutras and Masera will join Bel at the company's new Design Center in Westborough.

Bel Power Products will be managed by Marshall Miles, who joined the company last year to lead Bel into new markets. "We plan to continue to add industry-leading research, design and development talent to Bel Power Products," Miles said. "We have also recently appointed Dwayne Vasquez, formerly director of Sales and Marketing for Ericsson Microelectronics to lead our power sales efforts."

He said that Bel is actively reviewing potential acquisitions and recently retained Needham & Company as financial adviser to the company.

About Bel

Bel (www.BELfuse.com) and its subsidiaries are primarily engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of products used in networking, telecommunications, high-speed data transmission, automotive and consumer electronics. Products include magnetics for the high-speed data transmission and telecom markets, fuses, delay lines and thick film hybrids. The company operates facilities around the world.

Except for historical information contained in this news release, the matters discussed (including statements regarding growth opportunities, the expected impact of the Current Concepts transaction on earnings, potential acquisitions and plans for Bel Power Products) are forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements are: the effect of business and economic conditions; capacity and supply constraints or difficulties; product development, commercializing or technological difficulties; the regulatory and trade environment; the market's acceptance of the company's new products and competitive responses to those new products; and the risk factors detailed from time to time in the company's SEC reports.