Sumitomo Chemical Company to Acquire CDT

Sumitomo Chemical Company and Cambridge Display Technology today jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement whereby Sumitomo Chemical will acquire CDT, a developer of technologies based on polymer organic light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs). Under the merger agreement, Sumitomo Chemical will acquire all outstanding shares of CDT common stock at a price of $12 per share in cash, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $285 million. The merger consideration represents a 107 percent premium over CDT's 90-day average closing share price and a 95 percent premium over CDT's closing share price of $6.15 on July 30.

Hiromasa Yonekura, President of Sumitomo Chemical, said: `In recent years, Sumitomo Chemical has positioned its display materials business as one of its strategically important business areas and an area of focus for our business resources. OLEDs are expected to see considerable market growth in the future as next-generation materials for flat panel displays and lighting applications, and our company is actively engaged in the development of new materials and the improvement of device technologies. We have built a close cooperative relationship with CDT up to this point, and the complete integration of both companies' technological and intellectual assets through this acquisition will make it possible to greatly accelerate development. We are very grateful for the support of the CDT board of directors and major shareholders, and I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to all our colleagues at CDT on behalf of Sumitomo Chemical.'