Discreet Buys Certain 5D Assets

On Thursday December 12th, 2002, Discreet, a division of AutodeskCanada Inc., closed on a bid for several of the assets of the formerLondon, U.K. company 5D Solutions Ltd. Discreet was one of severalcompanies acquiring 5D's assets which were turned over for sale to theappointed liquidator.

The liquidation of 5D Solutions Ltd. assets was triggered after 5Delected to close their worldwide offices on Friday, October 11th 2002.As part of their external communications, 5D also announced that it hadterminated all remaining staff and that, due to financial difficulties,it would be liquidating the company's assets.

During the liquidation process Discreet had discussions with severalof the founding members of 5D interested in acquiring 5D's keyimage-processing and plug-in technology through a newly created companyknown as Speedsix Software. As these technologies are of great value tomany of Discreet's customers, Discreet decided early to fully supportSpeedsix in their future endeavors. Given Discreet's continuinginterest in building and acquiring technologies that can improve theircustomers' ability to create, Discreet has purchased some of theremaining technology assets.

Discreet did not have any interest in purchasing the 5D SolutionsLtd. business, but only selected assets that contained innovativetechnologies that were of strong interest for its own productdevelopment plans. These assets included technologies related to theformer Cyborg and Commander products. Discreet is now evaluating theexact integration of these technologies into the Discreet productline.