EFI Acquires DirectSmile, Broadens VDP and Cross Media Capabilities


FREMONT, Calif., July 21, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EFI™ (Nasdaq:EFII), a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced that it has acquired DirectSmile GmbH, an award-winning provider of software solutions for cross media marketing automation.

Based in Berlin, DirectSmile invented image personalization in 2001 and today makes media personalization and automation software that streamlines sophisticated marketing and production tasks for corporations, agencies and printing companies. DirectSmile's technologies extend EFI's offerings and will give customers expanded, fully integrated capabilities with data-driven digital print, web, e-mail, social media and mobile marketing workflows.

While financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, it is not expected to be material to EFI's Q3 or full year 2014 results. DirectSmile employees, including co-founders and former principals Christoph Schacht and Christoph Clermont, have joined EFI's Productivity Software Web2Print Solutions Group.

"Web to print is one of the fastest-growing parts of the printing and marketing software segment," said Gabriel Matsliach, senior vice president and general manager, EFI Productivity Software. "This acquisition gives us the ability to further address this segment with additional, best-in-class variable data and cross media technologies."

EFI will continue to develop, sell and support DirectSmile products as standalone software for the agency, enterprise and print industry markets. DirectSmile's technology also will be integrated into EFI's web to print and eCommerce offering, EFI Digital StoreFront®.

For additional information about EFI, visit www.efi.com or contact 800-875-7117.

About EFI

EFI™ (www.efi.com) is a worldwide provider of products, technology and services leading the transformation of analog to digital imaging. Based in Silicon Valley, with offices around the globe, the company's powerful integrated product portfolio includes digital front-end servers; superwide, wide-format, label and ceramic inkjet presses and inks; production workflow, web to print, and business automation software; and office, enterprise and mobile cloud solutions. These products allow users to produce, communicate and share information in an easy and effective way, and enable businesses to increase their profits, productivity, and efficiency.

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Safe Harbor for Forward Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements in this press release that could be deemed forward-looking statements include, but are not necessarily limited to, statements regarding the impact of the acquisition on EFI's Q3 2014 and full year 2014 results, expansion of our product portfolio, our future product offerings to DirectSmile customers, integration of DirectSmile, future customer achievements, continuation of support to the existing DirectSmile client base, and any statements or assumptions underlying any of the foregoing.

Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual future results to differ materially, or cause a material adverse impact on our results. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not necessarily limited to, unforeseen expenses; the difficulty of aligning expense levels with revenue; management's ability to forecast revenues, expenses and earnings; any world-wide financial and economic difficulties and downturns; adverse tax-related matters such as tax audits, changes in our effective tax rate or new tax legislative proposals; the unpredictability of development schedules and commercialization of products by the leading printer manufacturers and declines or delays in demand for our related products; changes in the mix of products sold; the uncertainty of market acceptance of new product introductions; intense competition in each of our businesses, including competition from products developed by EFI's customers; challenge of managing asset levels, including inventory and variations in inventory levels; the uncertainty of continued success in technological advances; the challenges of obtaining timely, efficient and quality product manufacturing and supply of components; litigation involving intellectual property rights or other related matters; our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses; the uncertainty regarding the amount and timing of future share repurchases by EFI and the origin of funds used for such repurchases; the market prices of EFI's common stock prior to, during and after the share repurchases; any disruptions in our operations, the difficulty to retain employees, and additional expenses that we may incur as a result of our relocation from the Foster City campus; the compliance with the new requirements regarding the "conflict minerals," if they are found to be used in our products, and any other risk factors that may be included from time to time in the Company's SEC reports.

The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. EFI undertakes no obligation to update information contained in this press release. For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with EFI's businesses, please refer to the sections entitled "Risk Factors," "Factors That Could Adversely Affect Performance," and other similar sections in our SEC filings and reports, including, but not limited to, EFI's annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by contacting EFI's Investor Relations Department by phone at 650-357-3828 or by email at investor.relations@efi.com or EFI's Investor Relations website at http://www.efi.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: The EFI logo and Digital StoreFront are registered trademarks of Electronics For Imaging, Inc. in the U.S. and/or certain other countries. EFI is a trademark of Electronics For Imaging, Inc. in the U.S. and/or certain other countries. All other terms and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners, and are hereby acknowledged.

Nothing herein should be construed as a warranty in addition to the express warranty statements provided with EFI products and services.



            

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