Waters Corporation Updates Business Conditions

MILFORD, Mass.--(Business Wire)--
Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) announced today that fourth quarter 2008
preliminary sales are approximately $418 million.

On December 11, 2008, the Company revised its fourth quarter 2008 sales and
earnings outlook due to anticipated reduced sales volume resulting from weaker
global economic conditions, constrained capital spending and unfavorable foreign
currency translation impacts. In the revised outlook, the Company anticipated
achieving fourth quarter 2008 revenues in the range of $410 million to $420
million.

In addition to the effects of unfavorable foreign currency translation, factors
that appeared to significantly influence fourth quarter 2008 revenues include:
slower spending by more economically sensitive chemical manufacturers, continued
weak demand from the global pharmaceutical industry and reduced sales in some
developing economies, offset to a degree by stable sales growth of the Company`s
recurring revenue product lines and continued strong sales growth in China.

Waters plans to present a detailed analysis of its fourth quarter and full year
2008 business results in its fourth quarter earnings release and subsequent
conference call scheduled for January 27, 2009, at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. To
listen to the conference call, connect to Waters` website www.waters.com, choose
"Investors" and click on the live webcast. A replay of the webcast will be
available until February 3rd at midnight eastern time.

Looking at 2009, market trends that may influence the Company`s 2009 performance
include an anticipated continuation of challenging market conditions experienced
during the fourth quarter of 2008 into the first half of 2009 and an adverse
effect of foreign currency translation on revenues from overseas shipments,
based on current exchange rate trends. Operationally, we anticipate that new
instrument system introductions and continued growth of the Company`s recurring
revenue lines should benefit sales, while prudent expense management and
continued optimization of the Company`s manufacturing strategy should benefit
operating profits. As a result of these market trends and operational
activities, the Company at present expects to generate significant free cash
flow to fund select acquisitions and continue its stock repurchase program.
Waters plans to present a more detailed outlook of its 2009 business prospects,
including anticipated sales and earnings, in its fourth quarter earnings release
and subsequent conference call scheduled for January 27, 2009.

About Waters Corporation:

Waters Corporation creates business advantage for laboratory-dependent
organizations by delivering practical and sustainable innovation to enable
significant advancements in such areas as healthcare delivery, environmental
management, food safety, and water quality worldwide.

Pioneering a connected portfolio of separations science, laboratory information
management, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis, Waters technology
breakthroughs and laboratory solutions provide an enduring platform for customer
success.

With revenue of $1.47 billion in 2007 and 5,000 employees, Waters is driving
scientific discovery and operational excellence for customers worldwide.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

This release may contain "forward-looking" statements regarding future results
and events, including statements regarding expected financial results, future
growth and customer demand that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For
this purpose, any statements that are not statements of historical fact may be
deemed forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words,
"believes", "anticipates", "plans", "expects", "intends", "appears",
"estimates", "projects", "should" and similar expressions are intended to
identify forward-looking statements. The Company`s actual future results may
differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking
statements within this release for a variety of reasons, including and without
limitation, the unpredictable impact on demand of the current global economic
deterioration and recession, the impact of changes in accounting principles or
tax rates including the effect of recently restructuring certain legal entities,
the ability to access capital in volatile market conditions, fluctuations in
capital expenditures by the Company`s customers, in particular large
pharmaceutical companies, regulatory and/or administrative obstacles to the
timely completion of purchase order documentation, introduction of competing
products by other companies, such as improved research-grade mass spectrometers,
and/or higher speed and/or more sensitive liquid chromatographs, pressures on
prices from competitors and/or customers, regulatory obstacles to new product
introductions, lack of acceptance of new products, other changes in the demands
of the Company`s healthcare and pharmaceutical company customers, changes in
distribution of the Company`s products, risks associated with lawsuits and other
legal actions particularly involving claims for infringement of patents and
other intellectual property rights, and foreign exchange rate fluctuations
affecting translation of the Company`s future non-U.S. operating results. Such
factors and others are discussed more fully in the section entitled "Risk
Factors" of the Company`s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December
31, 2007 and quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 27,
2008 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which
"Risk Factors" discussion is incorporated by reference in this release. The
forward-looking statements included in this release represent the Company`s
estimates or views as of the date of this release report and should not be
relied upon as representing the Company`s estimates or views as of any date
subsequent to the date of this release.

Waters Corporation
Gene Cassis, 508-482-2349
Vice President of Investor Relations

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