IONATRON ACQUIRES NORTH STAR RESEARCH
Tucson, Arizona:- September 20, 2004 - Ionatron, Inc., a next generation
controlled energy technology company (OTCBB: IOTN.BB), today announced it
acquired substantially all of the assets of North Star Research Corporation, a
company engaged in the business of designing and manufacturing a broad range of
high voltage equipment for the defense, aerospace, semi-conductor, , and medical
industries.
As consideration for North Star's assets, Ionatron paid $700,000, issued
199,063 shares of Ionatron common stock and assumed liabilities for warranty
claims against the purchased assets in an amount not to exceed $35,000.
"We have been working closely with North Star to develop and manufacture
the electrical sources for our Laser Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) directed
energy guided electrical products. Based on this relationship, and the
reputation that North Star has established for building novel electrical sources
for Government customers, we determined that North Star represented a strategic
acquisition for Ionatron. North Star is a profitable company that has been in
business for over 15 years and currently has annual revenues of approximately
$2.9 million. North Star provides us with control over the required technical
expertise to manufacture our high voltage transformers for our LIPC products in
volume, protection of our intellectual property and patent position in this
area, and enhances our research and development capabilities. North Star has
some novel patented power supply technology that we believe is adaptable to
commercial markets. We plan to expand those efforts and capitalize on the North
Star intellectual property and unique power supply design by bringing those
products to market," stated Thomas Dearmin, Chief Executive Officer and
President.
North Star is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico and will remain in its
present location. North Star is strategically located to support its ongoing
contracts with the Air Force at Kirtland AFB, Sandia National Laboratory and Los
Alamos National Laboratory, all located in New Mexico. Richard Adler, North
Star's founder and principal shareholder, will be relocating to Tucson, Arizona
and will become the Senior Scientist for Electrical Research and Development at
Ionatron.
ABOUT IONATRON
Ionatron develops and markets Directed Energy Weapon technology products
initially for sale to the U.S. Government. The goal of the Company is to produce
products that incorporate our technology initially for specific U.S. Government
customer applications and platforms. Ionatron and the U.S. Government have
entered into several contracts for products and services as well as Cooperative
Research and Development Agreements for joint research on LIPC based directed
energy weapons. We expect to offer U.S. Government approved versions of our
products for commercial security applications in the future. During 2003 and
2002, the Company engaged in research and development and business development
activities. Ionatron has demonstrated its laser guided man-made lightning
directed energy technology in the laboratory and now has government contracts
for effects testing, compact laser source development and the delivery of a
system on a mobile platform for field demonstration and testing. We are a new
technology company working under contracts with agencies of the U.S. Government
concerned with national security that has developed and demonstrated in our
laboratory a novel internally developed directed energy weapon technology called
LIPC, our technology controls and directs electrical energy down a laser created
plasma channel to a specific target. Our business strategy is to continue
long-term development of the technology for multiple national security and
defense applications, as well as to in parallel develop, applications in other
commercial sectors. Many short-term military applications have been already
demonstrated to our customers. Our immediate plan is to manufacture
transportable demonstrators for those applications for various U.S. Government
organizations, in order to demonstrate the field utility of the technology.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995:
Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve a number
of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the
actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially
different from any futures results, performance or achievements expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements.
Such factors include, but are not limited to: the risks of uncertainty of
patent protection; the risks of uncertainty of strategic alliances; the risk and
uncertainty of management tenure; the impact of third-party suppliers'
manufacturing constraints or difficulties; management's ability to achieve
business performance objectives, market acceptance of, and demand for, the
Company's products, and resulting revenues; development of technology and
manufacturing capabilities; impact of competitive products and pricing;
litigation and other risks detailed in the company's filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. The words "looking forward," "believe," "demonstrate,"
"intend," "expect," "estimate," "anticipate," "likely" and similar expressions
identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date
the statement was made. Ionatron undertakes no obligation to update any
forward-looking statements contained in this news release.