Goodbye PEMSTAR

01/09/2007

(Rochester, MN) - Local manufacturer Pemstar Inc. has disappeared into Texas-based Benchmark Electronics. It happened quietly yesterday as a temporary sign was placed over the familiar PEMSTAR sign. Some 60 workers at the Rochester facility are expected to be let go.

Pemstar’s stockholders approved a deal that is structured as a merger, but amounts to a sale of the Rochester-based company. Pemstar has now dropped off the stock market and becomes a part of Benchmark a publicly held corporation. Both companies make electronic components and products as a third-party provider for name-brand manufacturers.

About 60 percent of Pemstar’s investors voted for the merger and 95 percent of their shares were cast in favor of the deal.

Pemstar stockholders are receiving one share of Benchmark stock for every six Pemstar shares they own, plus a cash payment for remaining fractions of shares.

The two companies had announced their intent to combine back in October of 2006. Federal regulators have approved the deal.