Published: Fri Sep 05, 2008 2:00 AM MDT

Updated: Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:00 AM MDT

Quiksilver, one of the worlds leading outdoor sports lifestyle companies, announced last week that it has received a binding offer from Chartreuse & Mont Blanc to buy 100% of the Rossignol Group. The group includes the Rossignol, Dynastar, Look and Lange brands. Quiksilver bought Rossignol three years ago. According to Quiksilver, the sale is consistent with its intention to reduce its exposure to the winter sports equipment manufacturing business to concentrate on its core apparel and footwear products.

Chartreuse & Mont Blanc is named after the two mountain ranges which are home to Rossignols two key brands: Rossignol is nestled in the shadow of the Chartreuse mountain range and Dynastar in the shadow of Mont Blanc. Led by Bruno Cercley, a former CEO of Rossignol, C&MB is majority owned by the Macquarie Group and supported by a non-voting minority interest by Jarden Corporation. Jarden Corp. is the parent company of K2 and Vlkl.

The proposed transaction value is 100 million, comprised of 75 million in cash and a 25 million
Sellers Note. It is subject to a financing condition and customary working capital adjustment.
Quiksilver plans to use the net proceeds from the contemplated sale to repay existing
indebtedness.

Robert B. McKnight, Jr., Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive and President of Quiksilver, Inc.,
commented, This offer is a compelling transaction for Quiksilver and represents the culmination
of a thorough sale process. Once completed, we can fully concentrate our efforts on our core
apparel and footwear brands Quiksilver, Roxy and DC.

The transaction is expected to close in Fall 2008 following receipt of regulatory approval and
completion of required employee consultation procedures. Read the rest of this entry »

Published: Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:00 AM MST

Ruhpolding, Germany, January 29. Leif Nordgren (Marine-on-St. Croix MN), just 48 hours from a Bronze Medal in the Pursuit competition on Sunday, today finished 10th in the 12.5K Youth Individual competition, while Russell Currier (Stockholm, ME) finished 15th in the Junior 15k Individual at the Youth/Junior Biathlon World Championships here.

Ethan Dreissigacker (Morrisville, VT) with just one penalty in the four-stage competition joined Nordgren in the top 20 finishers.

Nordgren with three penalties, finished 3:01.6 back, while Dreissigacker was 4:02.6 behind the now triple medalist at these Championships, Ludwig Ehrhart of France (one penalty), who won in 38:24.6. Ehrhart won Bronze in the Sprint, Gold in the Pursuit, and now Gold in the Individual. Manuel Muller of Germany, with two penalties was 1:10.4 back while Ehrharts teammate Mathieu Souchal, with one penalty took third, 1:22.9 back.

On a perfect shooting day with not a cloud in sight and the wind flags barely moving, Nordgrens three penalties were one too many, thus keeping him out of the top eight finishers.

He explained, The first prone shot was clearly a miss, but I should have not missed the one in the second prone stage. That was the difference. Today, I saved too much for the last loop. Going into the final standing stage, Nordgren was in 27th position, after single penalties in each of the first three stages. He shot clean in the final stage, catapulting him to 11th position. With a fast last 2.5K, he moved into 10th place by the finish.

Despite not making the top eight, Nordgren was still smiling, Three places in the top 10 is pretty good. I was a little bit tired today, as I have a bit of a cold.

Although a top finish by Nordgren was expected, Dreissigacker simply overachieved today. Before the competition, when asked about his experience here, he commented, It is really inspiring. That inspiration must have helped as he had only one penalty today. That single penalty tied him for top shooting honors with Ehrhart and Souchal in the field of 103 competitors.

The 17-year old shot clean in the first two stages then missed one in the second prone stage, before cleaning the final standing stage. After the two clean stages, Dreissigacker was in eighth position. I felt really relaxed out there today, he said at the finish line. Knowing he had one of the top shooting performances, the television cameras followed Dreissigacker on this final 2.5K loop. At the top of the Wall, his faced etched with pain, showed the effort as he struggled to crest the tough hill at 11.9K. When told how he looked on camera, he commented, I think I felt worse. I was so tired I lost a pole.

Preston Butler (Marion, MA) and Raleigh Goessling (Duluth, MN) did not have as good of days on the shooting range as Nordgren and Dreissigacker. Butler, with seven penalties finished 11:17.4 back while Goessling had 11penalties, finishing 15:49.9 back.

In the Junior Mens 15K Individual, Russell Currier overcame three penalties in the first two stages to finished 15th, 3:31 behind Jean Guillame Beatrix of France. After missing those three shots, Currier was mired back near 50th position. He then shot clean in the second prone stage, moving up to 28th position. In the final standing stage, he again cleaned, leaving the shooting range in 16th position. With his aggressive skiing style, Currier pulled himself up to 15th place at the finish completing an outstanding turnaround. Wit that 15th place, he matched his personal best which came in Saturdays 10K Sprint.

The Maine Winter Sports Center athlete talked about his day, as he pulled on dry clothes in the finish area, My first prone misses were low, and I got some corrections that helped in the second prone. I did not want to give up after the three penalties today. Therefore, I just forgot about those stages and started over in the final two stages. My shooting has been improving since early January. Gary (Colliander) and I sat down then to see what was going wrong. He suggested some changes with the size of my aperture (on the sight). That made a huge difference and my shooting improved right away, especially in standing.

Yesterday temperatures reached plus 10 Celsius leaving the tracks soft and deep. However, it stayed near freezing today, making for fast icy skiing. For some athletes, this was helpful, but no Currier. He explained, This was not my best day skiing. These are not the best conditions for me, although they overall they were the best of the week. I like it when the conditions are soft, like yesterday. I am definitely a strength skier.

A video interview with Currier follows.

With the 15th today, Currier now has three top 20 finishes here, second on the team to Nordgrens three top 10 finishes.

Rounding out the first three finishers in the Junior 15K Individual was Anton Shipulin of Russia in second, only six-tenths of a second behind Beatrix. Shipulin had two penalties, while his teammate Dmitri Blinov, with one penalty finished 32.5 seconds back. He edged the only athlete to shoot clean today, Nik Langer of Germany by 9.8 seconds.

Mark Johnson (Grand Rapids, MN), finished 42nd with five penalties, 5:52.9 back today while Wynn Roberts (Battle Lake, MN) was in 62nd with eight penalties, 8:20.8 back.

The next competitions here will be the Youth and Junior Womens Individual on Wednesday.
Live streaming video coverage of all of the competitions at the Youth and Junior World Championships competitions as well as archived highlights of the World Cup season, is available by clicking the athlete photo at the top of the news column at www.usbiathlon.org .

Russell Currier

Leif Nordgren with his parents

Published: Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:00 AM MST

Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE: ZQK) announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to sell 100% of the stock of its Cleveland Golf Company, Inc. subsidiary to SRI Sports Limited, based in Japan.

The transaction value is $132.5 million and the transaction is expected to close during the fiscal quarter ending January 31, 2008. Net proceeds from the sale will be used to repay existing indebtedness.

Quiksilver originally acquired a portion of the interest in Cleveland in its July 2005 acquisition of the Rossignol Group. The remaining interest was acquired in a separate transaction in September 2007.

This transaction resulted from Quiksilvers initiative, first announced in June 2007, to explore strategic alternatives to reduce its exposure to the hardgoods manufacturing businesses. Robert B. McKnight, Jr., Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Quiksilver, Inc., commented, We are very pleased to have reached a compelling transaction with SRI Sports. While we believe that Cleveland is the best up-and-coming brand in the golf market with significant growth opportunities, it is not a strategic asset for us as we strive to maximize our core businesses and brands.

Bernard Mariette, President of Quiksilver, Inc., commented, We believe this transaction is a key strategic action for our company that will drive immediate value and enable us to reduce both our exposure to the hardgoods space and our degree of leverage. We are pleased to turn over the leadership of Cleveland to such a capable and well-respected company and believe that this transaction is a clear win for everyone involved.

Ryochi Sawada, Chairman of the Board of SRI Sports Limited, commented, We are very excited to add the Cleveland brand and business to our operations. Cleveland has a clear position of dominance in the important wedge market and a fast-growing presence in drivers and irons. We believe that this business will prove highly complementary to our own. We are looking forward to demonstrating Clevelands full potential to the market and believe that the business can benefit greatly from our stewardship.

Greg Hopkins, President of Cleveland Golf Company, Inc, commented, We are excited by the many positive aspects of this deal, including the combination of a great brand in golf with a new organization that is completely and solely devoted to the sport. Significantly, their operating model is set up to anticipate and respond to the seasonality and other specific requirements of the golf market. We believe that this singular focus will benefit the entire Cleveland organization in a number of ways. Each of the three companies involved - Cleveland Golf, Quiksilver, and our new parent SRI Sports benefit in significant ways as this transaction will positively effect the futures of all three companies.

Commenting on Quiksilvers remaining hardgoods brands, Mr. Mariette continued, We remain fully committed to our vision to transform Rossignol to a global lifestyle brand and therefore to the continued ownership of the related hardgoods assets. Mr. McKnight added, We are continuing to evaluate ways to reduce our exposure to risk in some of our non-core winter equipment businesses, including Dynastar, Lange, Look, Kerma and Risport which, like Cleveland Golf, were acquired in 2005 as part of the Rossignol Group.

Quiksilver, Inc. was advised by JPMorgan.

About Quiksilver
Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK) is the world's leading outdoor sports lifestyle company, which designs, produces and distributes a diversified mix of branded apparel, wintersports, footwear, accessories and related products. The Company's apparel and footwear brands represent a casual lifestyle for young-minded people that connect with its boardriding culture and heritage, while its wintersports brands symbolize a long standing commitment to technical expertise and competitive success on the mountains.

The reputation of Quiksilver Inc.s brands is based on different outdoor sports. The Company's Quiksilver, Roxy, DC Shoes and Hawk brands are synonymous with the heritage and culture of surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding, and its beach and water oriented swimwear brands include Raisins, Radio Fiji and Leilani. The Rossignol, Dynastar, Lange, Look and Kerma brands are leaders in the alpine ski market, and the Company makes snowboarding equipment under its Rossignol, Dynastar, DC Shoes, Roxy, Lib Technologies, Gnu and Bent Metal labels. Gotcha is the Company's surf-based European brand addressing street fashion.

The Company's products are sold in over 90 countries in a wide range of distribution, including surf shops, ski shops, skateboard shops, snowboard shops, its proprietary Boardriders Club shops, other specialty stores and select department stores. Quiksilver's corporate and Americas' headquarters are in Huntington Beach, California, while its European headquarters are in St. Jean de Luz and St. Jean de Moirans, France, and its Asia/Pacific headquarters are in Torquay, Australia.

About SRI Sports Limited
SRI Sports is a leading, listed sporting goods company that manufactures and sells golf and tennis equipment centered on the Dunlop and Srixon brands, with Fiscal 2006 consolidated sales of approximately US $470 million.

Forward looking statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements including but not limited to statements regarding the companys financial forecast, earnings and revenue guidance and the success of the Rossignol integration activities. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to Quiksilvers SEC filings for more information on the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations, specifically the section titled Forward-Looking Statements in Quiksilvers Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Note: For further information about Quiksilver, Inc., you are invited to take a look at our world at www.quiksilver.com, www.roxy.com, www.dcshoecousa.com, www.quiksilveredition.com, www.hawkclothing.com, www.rossignol.com, and www.dynastar.com