IBM and Chipcom Announce Significant Expansion of Existing Strategic Development and Marketing Alliance; Chipcom to be IBM's Primary Source for Ethernet And Token Ring Stackable Hubs, and a Significant Source of Ethernet Switching Technology

Business Wire, Feb 8, 1995

SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 1995--Chipcom Corp. (NASDAQ:CHPM) and International Business Machines Corp. Wednesday announced a significant, multi-year expansion to the existing strategic, worldwide development and marketing alliance between the two firms, originally signed in September, 1992, to now include several new product and technology areas.

Under this extension, Chipcom will become IBM's primary source for high-end Ethernet and Token Ring Stackable Hubs. IBM will sell, on an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) basis under its logo, Chipcom's recently announced (January 16) ONsemble StackSystem family of Ethernet and Token Ring Hubs. In addition, Chipcom will become a significant source for IBM of high-end Ethernet switching technology via its Galactica Network Switching Hub which IBM will also OEM under its logo.

As part of this same agreement, IBM will become a principal source of Token Ring technologies and products for Chipcom. Chipcom will OEM both the IBM 8230 family of Token Ring Stackable Hubs and the IBM 8272 Token Ring Switch to its customers under the Chipcom name.

"This extension strengthens our already strong alliance with IBM," said Rob Held, Chipcom's president and chief executive officer. "The IBM-Chipcom relationship has been mutually beneficial from day one, and we are obviously extremely delighted that IBM has endorsed our Ethernet and Token Ring stackable hubs and Ethernet switching technologies as important additions to their product arsenal. In addition, IBM's investment in Token Ring and ATM technologies will allow us to continue to expand our product lines."

According to Antoine Granatino, vice president, campus networking, at IBM, "Our relationship with Chipcom has allowed us to significantly strengthen our hub development program, and has helped us to offer customers a much broader range of strategic campus networking products.

"We believe the addition of Chipcom's Ethernet switching technology and stackable hubs to the IBM product portfolio, combined with our existing family of hub products, will enable us to offer our customers highly-effective solutions for their networking needs."

Under the original alliance agreement, IBM is remarketing Chipcom's ONcore Switching System and ONline System Concentrator intelligent switching hub product lines as its 8260 and 8250 multi- protocol hubs, respectively. As part of the long-term, strategic relationship, IBM is Chipcom's principal origin for Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology.

Founded in 1983, Chipcom Corp. designs, manufactures, markets, and supports fault-tolerant intelligent switching systems, including hub, internetworking and network management products, for remote sites, facility and enterprise network computing environments.

The company reported record revenue of $268 million for its 1994 fiscal year, ended December 31, a 67 percent increase over the same period of 1993. Together with its resellers, Chipcom has a presence in more than 40 countries, and the company employs over 850 people worldwide.

Chipcom was ranked Number 16 on Financial World magazine's 1994 list of America's best 200 growth companies, Number 81 on Fortune magazine's 1994 list as one of the 100 fastest-growing companies in the United States, and Number 150 on Forbes magazine's 1994 list as one of the 200 best small companies in America.

IBM networking products and services help customers realize the efficiencies of a seamless information infrastructure. The company's networking products include local, wide area and wireless hardware and software, and industry-leading solutions in systems management.

IBM's networking products interoperate with a wide range of other vendor products and protocols, and integrate easily with existing investments, so that businesses can customize networks to fit strategic needs.

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Note to Editors: Chipcom, Galactica and ONcore are registered trademarks and the Chipcom logo, ONsemble, StackSystem and ONline are trademarks of Chipcom Corp.

CONTACT: Chipcom Corp.

John H. Ricciardone, 508/624-6840

E-mail: jricciar@chipcom.com

Makovsky & Co.

Ann Mrkic, 212/532-6300

Beaupre & Co. Public Relations

Glen M. Zimmerman, 603/436-6690,

E-mail: gzimmer@beaupre.mv.com

IBM Corporation

Dennis Drogseth, 914/766-1519