November 28, 2005 — MKS Instruments, a Wilmington, MA, provider of monitoring and control technologies for semiconductor and other manufacturing processes, has entered into an agreement to purchase Berkeley, CA-based Ion Systems, a provider of electrostatic management solutions, for ~$70 million. Leo Berlinghieri, MKS’ CEO and president, commented that “this strategic combination of technologies for enabling advanced processes strengthens both companies’ abilities to serve our primary base of semiconductor OEM and device manufacturing customers, and extends our combined market reach to blue-chip end users in other markets.” Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in 6-8 weeks.