Advansus News Release

Advansus Computer announces the establishment of the company in January 2006.  Advansus Computer Co., Ltd is a joint venture between ASUSTeK [TSE:2357] and Advantech [TSE:2395] based on the strategic alliance agreement signed in September 2005. The initial paid-in capital of Advansus Computer Co. is NT$ 100 million with ASUSTek and Advantech holding 50% of the shares each. The company is expected to be fully operational from April 2006. Mr. K.C. Liu, Chairman of Advantech, will be Chairman of the Advansus Board of Directors, and Mr. Dixon Cheng, Chief Staff Officer of ASUSTek, will be the Deputy Chairman. Leveraging the two companies’ complimentary core competencies as planned in the original alliance, Advansus will develop high-GP, mid-volume Design and Manufacturing Service (IC - D&MS) business in industrial computing and dedicate to becoming the global industry leader.

Advansus Computer will set up its headquarter in ASUSTek’s current Tao-Yuan Plant. The company will start with two business units. The first business unit will focus on Industrial Servers, Storage, and Notebooks targeting Tier-1 D&MS customers. The second business unit will focus on Industrial Motherboards and Rugged Tablet/Handheld devices targeting mid-to-small D&MS customers. Advantech will become Advansus’ selling arm for its standard products under Advantech’s brand name. Advansus will purchase part of ASUSTek’s Tao-Yuan facilities and build its own manufacturing capabilities starting from the coming April. By end 2006, Advansus is expected to have 100 indirect employees, and the core manufacturing capabilities from the current ASUSTek’s Tao-Yuan facilities.

During the initial setup period, ASUSTek takes the lead in establishing Advansus’ manufacturing capacity and capability while Advantech is in charge of constructing the infrastructure and transfers its industrial computing know-how.  Both parent companies support Advansus’ R&D needs. Longer term, the new venture will establish complete organization capabilities to achieve the world leadership of D&MS in Industrial Computing. It is expected that Advansus will provide ASUSTek diversified growth opportunities, and Advantech new products sales and cost-down benefits.  In 2010, it targets to achieve NT$ 15 billion sales with 10% - 15%+ after tax net profits.

Any questions, please contact Advantech IR: 886-2-2792-7818 ext.7178, or IR@advantech.com