San Francisco, CA (June 29, 1999) - Walden International ("WI") is pleased to announce that Applied Materials, Inc., traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "AMAT", has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Obsidian, Inc., one of WI's portfolio companies, for approximately US$137.5 million in a stock-for-stock merger. The merger is expected to be completed by the end of July 1999, subject to, among other conditions, regulatory approval.

Headquartered in Fremont, California, Obsidian, Inc. is a private company founded in 1997. It is a leading independent developer of fixed-abrasive CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) solutions to the semiconductor industry. The proposed acquisition is expected to enable Applied Materials, the world's largest supplier of wafer fabrication systems and services to the global semiconductor industry, to offer a complementary, slurry-free CMP technology to customers, thus supplementing Applied Materials' existing slurry-based product, the Mirra CMP system. The benefits of fixed-abrasive technology include reduced costs associated with the purchase and disposal of chemical slurry.

"We have been evaluating semiconductor equipment deals for many years," says Andrew Kau, General Partner of WI. "Obsidian was one of the few deals that fit our criteria for investing in a revolutionary new technology applied to the fastest growing segment of the equipment industry." Kau notes that "Obsidian's approach was to abandon the conventional slurry-based process that everyone in the industry was using, and instead do the same job with a clean, fixed-abrasive process that also can yield superior through-put, uptime, consistency, and life-cycle cost - all key factors in any fab operation. The clincher to the deal was the fantastic quality of the management team."

Established in 1987, WI is an international venture capital firm with over US$850 million in funds under management. WIG's international network of investment professionals are located in the United States, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Australia, and Thailand.