TAKEOVER ANNOUNCED

Zebra Technologies Corporation has acquired all the outstanding stock of Vertical Technologies Inc, a privately held software development company located in Sandy, Utah, for an undisclosed amount payable in cash and Zebra stock.

Zebra Technologies, headquartered in Vernon Hills, Illinois, is one of the recognized leaders in the bar code industry, manufacturing and distributing a broad line of on-demand printers and supplies. The company had total 1994 revenues of $107 million from direct operations in the United States and Europe, and distribution to over 60 countries worldwide. It employs over 500 and serves a customer base of over 5- per cent of the Fortune 100 manufacturing companies.

Vertical Technologies develops and markets quality software products for bar code printing, scanning and tracking under the registered brand names of Bar-One, Scan-One, Track-One and Wedge-One. It will continue to operate from its Utah headquarters as Zebra Technologies VTI Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zebra Technologies Corporation.

David L Carter, VTI founder and president, will continue to manage Zebra Technologies VTI in the development of innovative bar code software systems.’ As part of the Zebra team, we will have the capability to better meet the growing demand for bar code products in the PC marketplace. This acquisition enables both companies to provide a complete and robust productivity solution for most businesses.’

Zebra VTI’s packages have version for both the entry level and higher end users. They offer simple, cost-effective solutions for an emerging market of smaller companies that wish to automate their operations with bar coding for greater productivity and quality. Businesses utilize bar coding for applications such as asset tracking, inventory control, automated data entry, document tracking, accounting management, shipping and receiving, security, time and attendance, labor tracking, order entry, etc.

According to Edward L Kaplan, Zebra chairman and ceo, ‘This is extremely exciting for us. We have been searching for ways to bring bar code solutions to a broad range of potential users beyond the medium to large companies currently using the technology.’ This acquisition strengthens Zebra’s position as the provider of total bar coding solutions by offering an easy interface to users of standard PC operating systems such as Windows, DOS, Macintosh and UNIX to Zebra’s printer products.

‘We see this acquisition as a significant opportunity for Zebra to bring the power of bar coding to more PC users by expanding our distribution in the increasingly important retail and value-added reseller channels,’ agrees John H Kindsvater, Zebra’s vice president of Corporate Development. ‘It enables us to offer a low cost, easy-to-use entry into the world of bar codings as well as an interface to our printers that will make them even more attractive to small- to mid-sized businesses.’

Zebra printers are generally considered the premier bar code printers and are used throughout business, industry and government primarily for bar coding/automatic identification labelling. Zebra’s broad rabge of thermal transfer printers includes the high performance Xi line and the economical Value-Line products. In addition, Zebra supplies a wide variety of label and tag media and compatible ribbons specifically suited for a myriad of applications.

The transaction will be accounted for using the purchase method. Zebra anticipates allocating a significant portion of the purchase price to acquire in-process research and development as required by generally accepted accounting principles, resulting in a charge to the company’s operations in the third quarter.