January 14, 2003 -- In an interview with WhatTheyThink.com, Guy Gecht, EFI’s CEO, positioned the company’s recent acquisition of Best GmbH within the context of EFI’s overall strategy.  According to Gecht, “We view our primary customer base as the professional printing community -- the people that are focusing on delivering printing services -- print for pay, commercial print, in-plant print shops, and the manufacturers of printing devices.  Best has the largest market share in inkjet proofing.  It made sense for us to join forces with them and make their proofing application part of our overall application suite for professional printing.” Gecht indicates that in addition to EFI’s financial strength, Best will benefit from the company’s geographic reach and strong partner portfolio.  EFI anticipates integration of Best’s proofing capability within Velocity OneFlow, the company’s workflow integration solution, to be the first of many EFI offerings that will be enhanced by the Best acquisition. In the interview, Gecht also discusses the company’s acquisition of Unimobile, its deployment of PrintMe Networks, and its aggressive move into the Device Relationship Management (DRM) space, highlighting how the integration of these three business areas with its market-dominate controller business sets the company apart from its competition and positions it as a key player in the world of mobile workers.  Gecht says, “I believe mobility is the most important play in technology today.” Overall, Gecht was bullish on EFI’s future, saying, “We have a lot of potential, we have very strong customer relationships, and we have great technology.  To be honest with you, our focus is not really so much on what will happen in 2003, but more on our long-term success and building a growing product portfolio that is going to meet the needs of the market into the future.  I really want to emphasize that what we are focused on today is the pursuit of our long-term strategy – and we plan to continue to be a strong force in the professional printing arena over the next 10 to 20 years and beyond.” *Editor’s Note: This news story contains excerpts from a two part interview conducted by Cary Sherburne. The interview details Gecht’s vision for the future of EFI and his views on the industry. Premium Access members can access this interview by visiting www.WhatTheyThink.com