Cognex Corporation Acquires Image Industries

Acquisition makes Cognex market leader in the U.K.

NATICK, MA - Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX), the world's leading supplier of machine vision systems, announced that it has acquired Image Industries, a privately held company located in Surrey, England.  Under the terms of the acquisition, Cognex has purchased all of the outstanding shares of Image Industries for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock.

Image Industries, founded in 1987, is the leading provider of machine vision systems to end users in the United Kingdom.  The company's principal product, Checker, is a compact, fully integrated vision sensor that is used in the electronics, automotive, and consumer goods industries for applications such as inspecting automotive electronics, cellular telephone components, and package and container inspection.  The company markets its products primarily in the United Kingdom.

The acquisition was completed on April 20th, and will be accounted for under the purchase method of accounting.  Cognex expects to retain the 15 employees of Image Industries, and to maintain operations in the current facility.  The sales and support staff will be integrated with Cognex's existing sales and support organization in the U.K.  The Research and Development team of Image Industries will operate as a remote product development group, and will focus on the development of highly compact, low-cost vision systems for the end-user market.

"This acquisition is a very exciting follow-on to our recently announced acquisition of the vision business of Komatsu, Ltd.," said David Schatz, Cognex's Vice President of Corporate Development.  "Similar to that acquisition, this transaction immediately establishes Cognex as the leading provider of machine vision systems to end users in a new geographic region.  It also provides Cognex with an additional group of experienced development and sales engineers who are experts in the design and distribution of low-cost vision sensors.  Working with our existing product development and sales teams, this new group will help accelerate our introduction of new, low-cost, machine vision products for end users around the world."

"We are very pleased to be joining the world's leading machine vision company," said Peter Neve, Founder and Managing Director of Image Industries. "We are looking forward to leveraging our extensive experience in industrial machine vision to help accelerate Cognex's growth both here in the U.K., and throughout the world."

Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets machine vision systems, or computers that can "see."  Cognex is the world's leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped to date more than 100,000 machine vision systems.  Cognex's Modular Vision Systems Division, headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, specializes in machine vision systems which are used for automating the manufacture of a wide range of discrete items and for assuring their quality.  Cognex's Surface Inspection Systems Division, headquartered in Alameda, California, specializes in machine vision systems which are used for inspecting the surfaces of products manufactured in a continuous fashion, such as metals, paper, and plastics.  In addition to its corporate headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, Cognex also has regional offices located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, and Southeast Asia.  Visit Cognex on-line at http://www.cognex.com.

Certain statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements.  These statements are based on the company's current expectations and estimates as to prospective events and circumstances which may or may not be in the company's control and as to which there can be no firm assurances given.  These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated.  The company wishes to caution readers not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made.  The company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events.  Further discussions of risk factors are also available in the company's registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.