October 10, 2005 – Cabot Microelectronics Corp., a supplier of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) polishing slurries, announced that it has purchased the assets of Surface Finishes Co. Inc., a privately-held company dealing in precision machining techniques at the sub-nanometer level.

This acquisition is designed to accelerate Cabot Microelectronics’ Engineered Surface Finishes (ESF) initiative, by which the company seeks to leverage its expertise in CMP formulation and polishing techniques for the semiconductor industry to address other areas where shaping, enabling, and enhancing the performance of surfaces is critical.

“Our acquisition today of Surface Finishes, with its demonstrated leadership in precision finishing of materials and surfaces with extremely demanding geometries, represents an important step in our pursuit of this strategy,” said William P. Noglows, chairman and CEO of Cabot Microelectronics.

“We believe our combined proprietary knowledge and skills will produce a unique ability to add value to many fine-finish polishing applications. We will continue to develop our core CMP business and work closely with our existing customers to meet their needs,” Noglows said. “However, we look forward to integrating Surface Finishes’ capabilities and pursuing other similar opportunities to complement our expanding engineered surface finishes efforts, enabled by the flexibility provided by our strong balance sheet and cash flow.”