FOSTER CITY, Calif. -- July 29, 2008--EFI, the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced it has acquired privately held Pace Systems Group for approximately $21 million in cash plus an additional cash earn out amount which is contingent upon achieving certain performance targets. Pace Systems Group is a print management software company providing practical print MIS and e-commerce solutions that make printing and graphic art companies more efficient and profitable.

The acquisition is expected to be neutral to earnings in Q3 and slightly accretive in Q4. EFI will announce its second quarter results and its third quarter outlook after close of market today.

"Jay Farr and Gary Foster built a great company and their technology will be a terrific complement to our own efforts, allowing us to meet our goal of a more efficient development process much sooner than anticipated," said Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI. "The combination of the Pace platform and our technology will help our customers capture growth and efficiency in the current challenging environment, and at the same time will bring a unique and powerful value-add application to our inkjet and Fiery customers. We look for the products developed using Pace Systems core technology to allow us to more cost effectively serve these markets."

EFI's strategy moving forward is to provide three solution sets to the printing industry. EFI PrintSmith(TM) will continue to serve the on-demand, copy shop, quick printer and small commercial shop. The new product, named EFI Pace, is a combination of the ePace platform and EFI technology. It will provide a fully-integrated, optimized solution for the middle market. EFI Monarch, comprised of EFI Hagen(TM) OA and other modules (see separate press release issued today), will provide a high-end, flexible solution for large single and multi-plant operations with multi-language, multi-currency, and customization options. EFI expects to deliver new versions of PSI(TM) and Logic(TM) later this year, and will then support these systems through maintenance releases. PSI and Logic customers will also be offered an easy upgrade path to EFI Pace or EFI Monarch.

Marc Olin, senior vice president/general manager, EFI Advanced Professional Print Software (APPS), said: "EFI is continually evaluating its Print MIS solution line-up to ensure that our customers are receiving 'best of breed' offerings. As a part of this strategy, EFI has committed to provide a browser-based, integrated solution to serve the mid-sized commercial market. After working on an internal project along this path for the last few years, and after a comprehensive evaluation of the ePace platform, we decided the best solution for our clients was to acquire this proven platform and add to it some of our latest technology. This acquisition is strong testament to EFI's commitment to serving the needs of our customers in all printing market segments. ePace will allow us to streamline our portfolio, improving the functionality and integration available to commercial printers while enhancing our status as the largest print MIS provider worldwide."

"Pace Systems Group has been a successful independent company for more than 30 years, and now the time is right to take our products and our customers to the next level by becoming part of EFI," said Jay Farr, CEO of Pace Systems Group. "We are excited to join EFI's print management line-up and to be able to leverage EFI's integration expertise, worldwide reputation and financial strength to provide our valued customers with an even higher quality of service."

Pace Systems Group is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and has approximately 80 employees. Their ePace solution is comprised of a complete suite of fully-integrated software modules for estimating, scheduling, production, accounting and e-commerce, and uses an appliance model that allows for installation and training in a fraction of the time required by other solutions. This advanced, secure system architecture is customizable, XML driven, ODBC compliant and allows browser-based access from Mac and PC platforms to better leverage emerging technologies that will define the digital workflow process. Hundreds of installed systems are in operation at sheetfed, web, digital, screen printers, in-plant operations, bindery and prepress trade service companies.