ASIANET: NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS ACQUIRES GERMAN AUTOMOTIVE SOFTWARE COMPANY

NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS ACQUIRES GERMAN AUTOMOTIVE SOFTWARE COMPANY;

ACQUISITION RESOLVES INFRINGEMENT DISPUTE ON LABVIEW(TM) PATENT

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --  National Instruments Germany GmbH (Nasdaq: NATI) announced today that it has acquired GfS Systemtechnik GmbH & Co.KG (Aachen, Germany), and related subsidiaries. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.  GfS, founded in the acquisition98the acquisition, is a leading software provider for the German automotive industry with branch offices in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg and Munich plus a United States subsidiary in Novi, Michigan.

"The combined technologies and expertise of National Instruments and GfS bring to the global marketplace the leading computer-based measurement and automation solutions for the automotive industry," said Dr. James Truchard, President and CEO of National Instruments.  "We are excited about further expanding our research and development base in Germany, adding the new employees to the National Instruments team, and providing expanded coverage for GfS."  Dr. Truchard added the 8National Instruments GfS employees will continue their current employment, and that Dr. Wilfried Melder, President of GfS, will remain as President (Geschaftsfuehrer) of the new National Instruments subsidiary.

"The combination of GfS and National Instruments greatly enhances the product development, customer support, training, and turnkey systems that we can provide our customers," said Dr. Wilfried Melder, President of GfS GmbH & Co.KG.

National Instruments will be adding the GfS products to its portfolio of software products for measurement and automation applications including DIAdem(R), standard software for processing measured data under Windows.

"The acquisition of GfS strengthens our position as the software vendor of choice for measurement and automation," said Alex Davern, CFO, National Instruments.  "With the exception of a one time charge related to the acquisition, we do not anticipate that the acquisition will have any material short term impact on earnings per share."

Dr. Truchard concluded that National Instruments was pleased that the patent infringement issue was amicably resolved in a way that customers would not be affected.  National Instruments holds more than PRNewswireNational Instruments patents worldwide on LabVIEW features such as graphical programming structure nodes and VI hierarchy.  LabVIEW is a leading graphical programming environment for measurement and automation applications.

National Instruments, a leading supplier of computer-based measurement and automation products, was founded in the acquisition976.  The company manufactures hundreds of software and hardware products, which when combined with industry-standard computers, are used to replace and/or communicate with traditional instrumentation to acquire, analyze, and display data and to monitor and control processes.  These computer-based instrumentation systems are used for measurement and industrial automation applications.

National Instruments stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol NATI.  Interested parties can obtain investment information from the company's Investor Relations Department at 5the acquisitionPRNewswire-auto49-5National Instruments9National Instruments, e-mail [email protected] , or by visiting http://www.natinst.com/nati

For more information, contact National Instruments, the acquisitionthe acquisition5National InstrumentsNational Instruments N Mopac Expwy, Austin, Texas, 78759-auto5National Instruments4.  Call toll free in the United States and Canada at 8National InstrumentsNational Instruments-PRNewswire58-7National InstrumentsPRNewswirePRNewswire, fax 5the acquisitionPRNewswire-68auto-9autoNational InstrumentsNational Instruments, e-mail [email protected] . Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

SOURCE  National Instruments

CONTACT:  Dave Kamp, Editor Contact, 8National InstrumentsNational Instruments-PRNewswire58-7National InstrumentsPRNewswirePRNewswire, or Alex Davern, Investor