Visualization Sciences Group Expands FEI's Image Analysis
              Capability Across All of FEI's Markets

HILLSBORO, Ore., Aug. 1, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FEI (Nasdaq:FEIC), a
leading instrumentation company providing imaging and analysis systems
for research and industry, today announced that it has acquired
Visualization Sciences Group (VSG) of Bordeaux, France. VSG provides
high-performance 3D visualization software products and tools to a
range of markets, including oil & gas, geosciences, mining, life
sciences, materials science and industrial inspection.

"VSG is an extension and acceleration of our strategy to provide
complete imaging and visualization solutions to our customers," said
Don Kania, president and CEO of FEI. "Their products and development
capabilities fit well with all of our target markets, especially in our
higher-growth Natural Resources and Life Sciences businesses. Our
customers are expressing an increasing demand for analysis of the data
our imaging systems create. At the same time, FEI intends to continue
to build upon VSG's growing software business. We are impressed with
VSG's solutions, including state-of-the-art 3D rendering, an open
application framework, object-oriented 3D libraries and very large 3D
data management capabilities. The company has a strong management team
and a talented group of employees."

"Combining with FEI gives us added breadth and distribution
capabilities to continue our growth," commented Jean-Bernard Cazeaux,
president and CEO of VSG. "We look forward to further contributing to
FEI's success in high-growth opportunities where we have a solid
customer base, such as Life Sciences and Natural Resources, and to
contributing our expertise to applications across all of FEI's
markets."

The purchase price for the acquisition is EURO44.8 million or
approximately $55 million. FEI funded the purchase with euros from its
European operations which otherwise would be subject to U.S. taxation
if repatriated. VSG had pro-forma revenue for the 12 months ended June
30, 2012 of approximately $19 million and has 88 employees. FEI expects
the acquisition to have a neutral impact on GAAP earnings for the
second half of 2012 and to be accretive in 2013.

About FEI

FEI (Nasdaq:FEIC) is a leading diversified scientific instruments
company. It is a premier provider of electron- and ion-beam microscopes
and solutions for nanoscale applications across many industries:
industrial and academic materials research, life sciences,
semiconductors, data storage, natural resources and more. 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(TM), 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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About VSG

VSG's Avizo(R) and amira(R) 3D software applications are powerful,
multifaceted tools for visualizing, manipulating, and understanding
scientific and industrial data. Wherever three-dimensional data sets
need to be processed, in life and materials science, geosciences,
environmental science or engineering applications, Avizo and amira
offer abundant state-of-the-art features within an intuitive workflow
and easy-to-use graphical user interface. VSG also provides Open
Inventor(R), an object-oriented 3D development toolkit that allows
software developers to easily integrate high-performance 3D
visualization capabilities in their applications. For more information,
go to: www.vsg3d.com

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements that include
statements regarding the potential benefits and expectations for the
acquisition by FEI of VSG and other statements of management's beliefs,
intentions or goals, including the impact on 2012 and 2013 earnings.
Factors that could affect these forward-looking statements include but
are not limited to: the inability of FEI to successfully integrate
VSG's operations, products and technology; failure of the VSG products
and technology to perform as expected and achieve anticipated results;
slower-than-expected demand for 3D visualizations software from FEI's
existing customer base and markets; loss of key personnel; attrition
from VSG's existing customer base and failure to grow and expand in
other markets. Please also refer to our Form 10-K, Forms 10-Q, Forms
8-K and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
for additional information on these factors and other factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from the
forward-looking statements. FEI assumes no duty to update
forward-looking statements.


CONTACT: For more information contact:
         Sandy Fewkes, Principal (media contact)
         MindWrite Communications, Inc
         +1 408 224 4024
         sandy@mind-write.com
         
         FEI Company
         Fletcher Chamberlin (investors and analysts)
         Investor Relations
         +1 503 726 7710
         fletcher.chamberlin@fei.com