Rippey Corporation completes sale of equipment lines to Cybor Corporation; company positioned for rapid growth in PVA products market.

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 3, 1997-- Completing a process begun last summer, Rippey Corp. announced today the sale of certain assets of its high-technology equipment manufacturing lines to Santa Clara based Cybor Corp.

Cybor Corp. purchased equipment related to the following four product lines: Smart DI Water Systems (models 2.5, 5.0 and 6.5 "Hydrotherm" series); Chemical/Hot Acid Heating Systems (Chemflo and Chemflo II); Surfactant Mix Station and Slurry Mix and Dispense Systems. Cybor Corp. will take full responsibility for the manufacturing, sale and support of all equipment lines purchased from Rippey Corp. The purchase price was not disclosed.

In explaining the decision to divest the equipment lines, Bob Pedersen, chief operating officer of Rippey Corp. said, "The PVA products segment of our company is a rapidly developing global business. Our intention in selling the equipment assets is to focus our resources on PVA product sales, expanding our global presence and continuing to be the market leader in the rigid disk drive and semiconductor manufacturing industries."

The growth for Rippey's PVA products business is being fueled by the dramatic increase in the use of CMP cleaning processes in semiconductor manufacturing and the worldwide demand for high-quality rigid disk media used in the production of disk drives.

Industry leaders in these two markets have recognized the exceptional performance of Rippey PVA products and have indicated long-term commitments to this proven method of critical cleaning. Pedersen noted, "With the growth of CMP cleaning and explosive disk drive production, Rippey Corporation is projecting record sales and growth for the next three to five years in its core PVA products business."

Rippey Corp. recently opened a sales and distribution facility in Singapore to service its burgeoning customer base in Southeast Asia. "Our new Singapore facility represents the commitment to develop even closer relationships with our customers and become more responsive to their needs," noted Pedersen.

"Rippey Corporation is making new, long-term commitments to meeting requirements for product applications development, quality and service in the growth of our PVA products business."

Rippey Corp. is the world's leading supplier of PVA products used for the manufacture of hard disk drive components and semiconductor devices. Since 1982 Rippey has offered patented PVA products setting the industry standard for critical rigid disk media and post CMP cleaning applications.

Headquartered in El Dorado Hills, Rippey Corp. has a branch office in Singapore and manufacturer's representative offices in strategic locations worldwide.

CONTACT: Rippey Corp.

Robert Pedersen, 916/939-4332 (COO)

Joseph B. Arbios, 916/939-4332 (Dir. of Marketing)