Mitcham Industries Announces Acquisition

Mitcham Industries, Inc. has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Seamap Pte Ltd., ("Seamap"), which designs, manufactures and sells specialized marine seismic equipment, has acquired the marine energy source product lines from ION Geophysical Corporation (IO).

The product lines acquired are the Digishot energy source controller and the Sleeve Gun energy source, including related inventories, intellectual property, trade-marks and patents. Guy Malden, Mitcham Industries' Executive Vice President Marine Systems, stated, "This transaction provides Seamap with important intellectual property, new customer relationships and expands our product offerings. We are committed to the continued sales and support of these products as additions to the Seamap product line. Our plans include a new office in Beijing and additional resources from Seamap in Singapore as well as Mitcham Industries' other locations around the world.

"Major marine seismic contractors are making substantial investments in improved technology to differentiate their capabilities in the market, as evidenced by the announcements of new build vessels coming into the market over the next few years.  Seamap is a leading supplier of marine source controller technology, and this transaction is expected to enhance our ability to meet the requirements of the marine seismic industry, including evolving broadband solutions.

We believe that this acquisition, which we expect to be accretive in the first year, will enable Seamap to broaden its scope into new geographic markets and with new customers, while offering a more complete choice of products. The products are an excellent fit with our existing marine seismic equipment business, and importantly, we expect certain technology provided by the intellectual property acquired in this transaction will significantly benefit  Seamap in future product developments."  

Mitcham Industries, Inc., a geophysical equipment supplier, offers for lease or sale, new and "experienced" seismic equipment to the oil and gas industry, seismic contractors, environmental agencies, government agencies and universities. Headquartered in Texas, with sales and services offices in Calgary, Canada; Brisbane, Australia; Singapore; Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia; Budapest, Hungary; Lima, Peru; Bogota, Colombia and the United Kingdom, Mitcham conducts operations on a global scale and is the largest independent exploration equipment lessor in the industry.  Through its Seamap business, Mitcham designs, manufactures and sells specialized seismic marine equipment.