Corning, New York–Corning Inc. announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the stock of Tropel Corp., a Fairport, NY-based world leader in precision optics and metrology instruments for the semiconductor industry, in a transaction valued at approximately $190 million, based on the closing price of Corning common stock on January 22, 2001.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Corning will pay approximately $60 million in cash and 1.95 million shares of Corning common stock. The company expects the acquisition to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2001, pending customary regulatory approval. The investment is expected to be neutral to Corning’s 2001 pro forma earnings and accretive in 2002.

Tropel will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Corning Inc., operating as a unit of the company’s semiconductor materials business within its Specialty Materials division. John Bruning will continue as president and CEO of the business, to be known as Corning Tropel.

“Corning is very pleased to be able to combine our leading material expertise with Tropel’s knowledge of precision optical subsystems for the microlithography industry,” says Jim Steiner, vice president and general manager of Corning’s Specialty Materials division. “We are especially pleased to have John Bruning, a well recognized industry leader join our management team.”

Tropel’s product lines of high performance optical components, subsystems, and optical metrology instruments, specially designed and manufactured for wafer, photomask, and semiconductor equipment suppliers will complement Corning’s current portfolio of microlithography optical materials and allow the company to expand its commitment to the increasingly important semiconductor industry.