Communications & Power Industries, Inc. Announces Major Organizational and Facilities Changes.

Business Editors

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 2000

Company Moves to Strengthen Competitive Posture and Financial

Position; No Reductions in Force Planned

Communications & Power Industries, Inc., (CPI), a world leader in microwave communications technology, has announced the formation of an Office of the Chief Operating Officer, with senior executives Joseph Caldarelli and Robert Fickett named as co-chief operating officers, overseeing the six CPI operating divisions.

Both senior executives also retain their titles and positions as president and general manager of their respective operating divisions, Caldarelli as head of the Communications & Medical Products Division in Ontario, Canada, and Fickett as head of the Microwave Power Products Division in Palo Alto.

Concurrently, CPI announced that it will relocate the administrative offices of its Traveling Wave Tube operation, Corporate Headquarters, and Klystron Tube operation to a single building in Palo Alto. To accommodate these changes, the CPI Satcom Division's production operation, currently in Palo Alto, will be moved to the CPI Canada facility in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada over the next 12 to 18 months. The moves will allow CPI to reorganize its Microwave Power Products Divisions for better efficiency and product flow and free up Building 1 so it can be subleased.

Commenting on the organizational and facility changes, Bart Petrini, president and chief executive officer of CPI, said: "With the creation of the Office of the Chief Operating Officers we will be able to apply the talents of two of our most capable senior executives across the entire range of our businesses. For example, Joe Caldarelli, a senior and experienced general manager, will now assume the leadership role in our very important Satcom Division business."

"We're undertaking the facilities moves in the interest of cost-efficiency," Petrini continued. "At the same time we plan to minimize any employee disruption. Our Traveling Wave Tube staff will simply relocate to another building. Satcom employees who are affected will be offered equivalent positions in one of CPI's West Coast operations with no reduction in personnel. Overall, we believe the organizational and facilities changes will be very beneficial to the entire CPI organization."

A $250-million a year, privately held company, with approximately 1,700 employees, CPI was formerly the Electron Devices Business Group of Varian Associates, which was founded in 1948 and was one of the first companies to build in the Stanford Industrial Park.

In addition to Palo Alto's Microwave Power Products and Satcom Divisions, CPI's other divisions are the Eimac Division (formerly Eitel-McCollough), San Carlos, Calif.; Solid State Products Division, San Jose, Calif.; Communications & Medical Products Division, Georgetown, Ontario, Canada; and Beverly Microwave Division, Beverly, Mass.