Company Establishes New Position of COO and Appoints CFO

    SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- SDL, Inc. (Nasdaq: SDLI) today
announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Gregory P. Dougherty to
the newly established position of Chief Operating Officer.  Additionally, the
company announced that Michael L. Foster has been appointed Chief Financial
Officer.
    Dougherty, who joined the company 18 months ago from Lucent Technologies,
has served as Vice President of SDL's Communications Business Unit, one of the
company's most successful divisions.  Under his leadership, SDL's commercial
communication product line experienced revenue growth of over 70 percent year
to date.
    "We are pleased to move Greg into this new position as we believe he will
bring an improved level of performance to the whole organization as he did to
our communications group," said Donald R. Scifres, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer.  "As we pursue the opportunities in our high-growth
markets, particularly optical communications, we needed to ensure that our
management team has the breadth of experience to capitalize on those many
opportunities.  Greg has proven he can provide substantial guidance and
insights to our business.  His extensive experience in this market and
background with Lucent will add more discipline to our objectives and
strategic direction."
    Commenting on his appointment, Dougherty said, "I am very excited to be
part of SDL's mission to become the leading provider within the optical
communications markets.  As evidenced by our recent success at broadening our
customer base and applications within this market, we have substantial
opportunities for growth."

    SDL Appoints Foster as CFO
    Additionally, SDL officially appointed Mike Foster as Chief Financial
Officer, a role which he has filled on an interim basis since July 1998.
Foster joined SDL three months ago after working 19 years at California
Microwave, Inc., a large telecommunications equipment supplier, where he was
Vice President and Treasurer.
    "We have already benefited greatly from Mike's financial planning,
strategic approach and management expertise over the last few months," said
Scifres.  "He brings a combination of strong skills in financial control with
experience in acquisitions and divestitures.  He has engineered the SDL, Inc.
stock repurchase plan that is being announced today.  Currently, Mike is also
reviewing all of our product lines to ensure they are in line with our overall
strategy of profitable growth.  Specifically, Mike is working with Greg
Dougherty in a focused effort to improve our gross margins in 1999.  We
anticipate that this analysis and discipline will add to SDL's profitable
growth in the years to come."
    Commenting on his appointment, Foster said, "I am very excited to join SDL
at this time, as I believe the company is entering a major new growth phase,
driven by the growing demand for our products in the communications market.  I
look forward to working with the dynamic teams we have assembled at the
management level and within each of our divisions."
    Scifres continued, "We believe that these appointments, combined with the
other management promotions within various product groups, are creating the
right level of expertise and leadership to significantly strengthen our
ability to compete and succeed in the communications, printing, medical and
materials processing sectors."
    SDL designs, manufactures and markets semiconductor optoelectronic
integrated circuits, semiconductor lasers, fiber optic related products and
optoelectronic based systems.  The company's products are used in a diversity
of markets such as telecommunications, cable television, dense wavelength
division multiplexing, satellite communications, printing, medical and
materials processing markets.
    Statements in this press release which are not historical, including
statements regarding SDL's or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs,
expectations, representations, projections, plans or predictions of the future
are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Such statements include statements regarding
the ability of the new management team to improve the level of performance of
the company, the company's mission to become the leading provider within the
optical communications, printing, medical and materials processing markets,
the company's opportunities in high growth markets, the ability to improve
gross margins, the ability to achieve profitable growth, and the company's
ability to capitalize on substantial opportunities for growth.  It is
important to note that the Company's actual results could differ materially
from those in any such forward-looking statements.  Factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially include risks related to the inability of
the management team to successfully manage growth, changes in the management
team, inability to ramp production, lack of demand for products, uncertainties
in market conditions, delays or cancellations of customer orders, lack of
customer acceptance of new products, lack of customer qualification of
products, inability to improve gross margins, inability to attain the
predicted level of company performance or profitable growth, and the risk
factors listed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports including, but
not limited to, the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
1997, and quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q.

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