Columbia Banking System and West Coast Bancorp Will Merge; West Coast Holders Will Get $23.10 per Share

Columbia Banking System, Inc.

"Columbia") and West Coast Bancorp

"West Coast") today jointly announced that the companies have agreed to combine their two leading Pacific Northwest community bank franchises in a transaction valued at approximately $506 million.  The combined company will have approximately $7.2 billion in assets with over 150 branches throughout Washington and Oregon and will rank number 1 in deposit market share amongst commercial community banks in the combined states of Washington and Oregon.