HILLSBORO, Ore., Jan. 14, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FEI Company (Nasdaq:FEIC) announced today that it is reorganizing the company into a group structure to enable it to efficiently execute its growth strategy. The company will be organized into two groups: an Industry Group, focused on customers making economic decisions to purchase and utilize FEI solutions that improve yield, reduce cost or speed time to market resulting in improved profitability; and a Science Group, focused on customers using FEI solutions to advance research and discovery.

In conjunction with the organization change, Executive Vice President Benjamin Loh has been promoted to chief operating officer of the company. Vice President Rudy Kellner has been named to head the Industry Group and Vice President Paul Scagnetti will lead the Science Group. Both report to Mr. Loh.

"As we approach a billion dollars in revenue, FEI has put strong leadership in front of our customers with common needs to drive our continued profitable growth," commented Don Kania, president and CEO of FEI. "This structure will also provide the framework to efficiently integrate acquisitions into FEI."

Mr. Loh joined FEI in 2007 as executive vice president of Global Sales and Service and his role expanded to Global Business Operations in 2011. In addition to his current responsibilities, he adds manufacturing and research & development in his new role. Prior to joining FEI, he was most recently executive vice president of Global Field Operations with Veeco Instruments Inc., which he had joined in 2005 as senior vice president, Asia Pacific. Before that, he was with Unaxis Corporation, including serving as president of Unaxis Shanghai and senior vice president, Asia. He holds an Electronics Engineering diploma from Singapore Polytechnic and an Electronics Engineering degree from Tohoku University in Japan.

Mr. Kellner joined FEI in 2003 and was named vice president and general manager of the Electronics business unit in 2009. Prior to FEI, he was with Electro Scientific Industries. He holds a BS in Computer Science and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Scagnetti joined FEI in 2001 and was named vice president and general manager of the Natural Resources business unit in 2007. Before FEI, he was with Intel Corporation in marketing and general management roles within the New Business Investments Group and in process development engineering. He holds an MBA from the University of Oregon and a PhD in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Science Group includes the Materials Science and Life Sciences business units. In the first nine months of 2012, those businesses represented approximately 48% of FEI's revenue. The Industry Group includes the Electronics and Natural Resources businesses. In the first nine months of 2012, those businesses represented approximately 52% of company revenue. Both of the new Groups include the revenue and costs associated with service provided to their customers. In accordance with SEC guidelines, FEI plans to report its segment information for the fourth quarter and full year of 2012 in line with its prior segment reporting. Beginning with the first quarter of 2013, it will report segments based on the new management structure.

The company also expects to incur additional restructuring charges in the fourth quarter of 2012, primarily related to the reorganization. With its third quarter earnings release on October 30, the company had forecast restructuring expense of approximately $2 million for the fourth quarter. That expense is now forecast to be $2.9 million.

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements that include statements regarding future growth, organizational changes, improved ability to integrate future acquisitions, planned segment reporting and restructuring charges. Factors that could affect these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: potential disruption in the company's focus, activities and ability to execute due to organizational change; failure of organizational changes to achieve expected benefits; the inability of the company to make future acquisitions; unanticipated costs related to future acquisitions; failure of the company to achieve anticipated benefits of acquisitions, including failure to achieve financial goals and effective integration; additional restructuring charges in the future and failure to properly estimate expected restructuring charges and the timing of such charges; potential weakness in the global economy and their impact on Science markets, including the impact of government austerity measures and the interruption of growth in developing markets; and cyclical changes in industrial markets, including semiconductors, mining and oil & gas. Please refer to FEI's Form 10-K, Forms 10-Q, Forms 8-K and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information on risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. FEI assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.

About FEI

FEI Company (Nasdaq:FEIC) is a leading supplier of scientific instruments for nanoscale applications and solutions in industry and science. With more than 60 years of technological innovation and leadership, FEI has set the performance standard in transmission electron microscopes (TEM), scanning electron microscopes (SEM) and DualBeams™, which combine a SEM with a focused ion beam (FIB). Headquartered in Hillsboro, Ore., USA, FEI has over 2,300 employees and sales and service operations in more than 50 countries around the world. More information can be found at: www.fei.com.

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