Varian Medical Systems To Acquire Assets of OpTx CorporationAcquisition To Add Software For Managing Medical Oncology Treatments to Varian's VARiS Software Suite for Cancer Treatment Facilities PALO ALTO, Calif. - March 4, 2004 - Varian Medical Systems, Inc., (NYSE:VAR) today announced an agreement to acquire the assets of Denver-based OpTx, a privately-held supplier of software for medical oncology practices in cancer clinics. The acquisition will enable Varian to offer an integrated single software system for managing and coordinating radiation therapy and chemotherapy routinely used in the treatment of cancer. Varian will pay approximately $18 million to acquire the OpTx assets, including the OpTxTools™ software, which it will continue to develop, sell, install, and service worldwide as a stand-alone product for medical oncology practices and as part of its VARiS software for coordination with radiation oncology.Varian has been selling the OpTx software as VARiS MedOncology™ under a private label agreement with OpTx since 2001. The software enables cancer treatment facilities to document patient data, manage clinical trials, track complex drug interactions, administer prescriptions, and schedule treatments for chemotherapy. "By acquiring this proven software product, we can now integrate it more seamlessly into our VARiS™ software for radiation therapy," said Richard M. Levy, Chairman and CEO of Varian Medical Systems. "This will enable Varian to provide cancer treatment facilities with software that combines and manages information including appointments, treatment regimens, and charge capture for both radiation therapy and chemotherapy within a single electronic medical record for every patient. "Consistent with our mission of providing true customer solutions that make cancer treatments better, faster, easier, and more cost effective, Varian will be able to offer the most comprehensive management software for modern, multi-modality cancer treatments," Levy said. Varian anticipates the acquisition will initially add annualized revenues of approximately $9 million and be nearly neutral to earnings for the company in the current fiscal year. "We expect that our worldwide sales, service, and support network will contribute to faster and deeper market penetration for these software products," Levy said. "The OpTx software is now installed in about 40 sites, primarily in the U.S. and Canada and we believe it to be the best in the world."About 60 OpTx employees are being offered jobs with Varian, and the company's facilities in Winnipeg and Edmonton, Canada and in Denver will be kept substantially intact. The companies expect to close the transaction in March. The transaction is not subject to any pre-closing regulatory filings.