Mitsui Chemicals (partially) withdraws from CD-R/DVD-R mfg.

[Reg-da-Ripper]

Official press release

CSI of Italy Acquires Majority Stake in Mitsui Advanced Media, Inc.

Colorado Springs, CO – June 16, 2003

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. has made a strategic decision to partially withdraw from the CD-R and DVD-R manufacturing arena. Computer Support Italcard s.r.l. (CSI) of Italy, has agreed to acquire the majority stake in Mitsui Advanced Media, Inc..

CSI of Milan Italy, is a leader in the production of CD-R, DVD-R, micro floppy disc, paper products, CD-Rom and CD-Audio. CSI was created in 1997 through a fusion between two companies, Computer Support Italy and Italcard. Italcard was a market leader in the production of listing forms for printers, born in 1975. CSI operates a 150,000 sq. ft. facility at Milan, Italy. Last summer CSI also acquired majority control of Mitsui Advanced Media, SA in France, now Manufacturing Advanced Media Europe, SA (MAM-E). Since then, CSI has installed DVD-R and additional CD-R capacity in the MAM-E facility. With the acquisitions of MAM-E and Mitsui Advanced Media, Inc., CSI will command approximately $130 million in annual sales.

Mitsui Advanced Media, Inc. will change it's name to MAM-A Inc.. MAM-A will still be able to draw on the resources of CSI and Mitsui Chemicals to better serve the customer base. The new alliance between CSI and MAM-A will also enable the company to offer new products in the near future.

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For Further Information Contact:

Joe Weisenbach
MAM-A Inc.
10045 Federal Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80908
Phone: 719-262-2453
joe.weisenbach@mam-a.com

[cfitz]

Thanks for the notice, Reg-da-Ripper. I will say, though, that in practical terms Mitsui Chemicals/Advanced Media/America (or whatever they are calling themselves lately) withdrew in practice long before now. This just makes it official.

It's kind of a shame, since they had a good reputation at one time. But that was a long time ago, in CD-R terms. And in my limited experience, their latter products didn't live up to the reputation they established earlier. And they never could compete at all in terms of price. It wasn't even close...

cfitz

[tc17]

Well I always use to hear that the Mitsui brand was the best, and you get what you pay for.

A long time ago I purchased their discs for that very reason (the gold cd's they made). Later on it turned out I lost a lot of old family photos I archived due to their cdrom failing (for whatever reason it was no longer readable).

That has led me to believe that higher prices do not mean better quality cd's.

Their cdrom's have always been overpriced compared to the competition.