Discreet Completes 5D Asset Purchase

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 saleto the appointed 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 fullysupport Speedsix in their future endeavors. Given Discreet’scontinuing interest in building and acquiring technologies that canimprove their customers’ ability to create, Discreet haspurchased some of the remaining 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.