NEW YORK, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Dover Corporation (NYSE: DOV) announced today that first quarter earnings are going to be lower than the company had previously expected. In January, when reporting earnings for the fourth quarter of 2000, Dover said that "first quarter earnings this year could easily be 20% below the first quarter of 2000." Earnings in the first quarter of 2000 were $117.3 million or $.57 per diluted share. It now appears that earnings for the first quarter will be in the range of $.38 to $.41 per diluted share, a decline of roughly 30% from the prior year.

Results in the Dover Technologies segment have been particularly heavily impacted by a decline in demand from the customers of its Circuit Board Assembly and Test (CBAT) businesses. Though the earnings decline in the CBAT business will be off-set to some degree by favorable year-over-year comparisons in the Specialty Electronics Components (SEC) businesses, both CBAT and SEC will report first quarter bookings levels substantially below first quarter sales, reflecting the widely reported decline in the electronics manufacturing industry.

The companies in Dover's other three segments -- Dover Industries, Dover Diversified, and Dover Resources, serve a large number of niche commercial and industrial markets. These segments will all also likely report declines in earnings compared to last year's first quarter, largely as the result of the impact of sluggish economic conditions in many markets.

Thomas L. Reece, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said "Despite the current market environment, Dover believes that the longer-term growth prospects of these businesses remains positive."

In the first quarter, Dover's financial condition remained strong, supporting continued investment in existing businesses, continuing the add-on acquisition program, and permitting, near the end of the quarter, modest levels of stock re-purchases.

Concurrent with this press release Dover is making available on its web site, http://www.dovercorporation.com, the sales, bookings and operational earnings of the CBAT and SEC businesses for the first quarter of 1997 through the fourth quarter of 2000, to aid investors in analyzing the cyclical nature of Dover Technologies business.

Dover is scheduled to issue a press release disclosing first quarter results on April 16th, and will conduct a conference call regarding the press release at 9:00am EDT on April 17th. The conference call will be simultaneously web-cast from http://www.dovercorporation.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and the performance of Dover Corporation that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially including, but not limited to, failure to achieve expected synergies, failure to successfully integrate acquisitions, failure to service debt, failure to sell non-core properties, including without limitation, as a result of the failure to obtain regulatory approvals or of conditions to closing to occur, economic conditions, customer demand, increased competition in the relevant market, and others. Dover Corporation refers you to the documents that it files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, such as the Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, which contain additional important factors that could cause its actual results to differ from its current expectations and from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. SOURCE Dover Corporation

CONTACT: David S. Smith, Vice President of Dover, 212-922-1640/