Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard Japan and ePIT Form Strategic Alliance; Partnership Focused on Far East E-marketplaces

Business Wire, Feb 15, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 15, 2001

Delivers a Comprehensive Trading Technology Solution to

Financial and B2B Exchanges

On February 13, 2001, Hitachi, Ltd. (President and Director: Etsuhiko Shoyama, hereafter Hitachi), Hewlett-Packard Japan, Ltd. (President: Masao Terazawa, hereafter HPJ) and San Francisco-based ePIT, Inc. (President and CEO: Timothy E. Campbell, hereafter ePIT) announced that the three companies have formed an alliance to market an Internet-Based Electronic Securities/Commodities Exchange System Solution to clients in Japan. The alliance will target the next generation financial and B2B exchanges that need a flexible and scalable trading technology solution which supports connectivity to the exchange via intranet, Internet or virtual private network (VPN). The solution supports multiple market mechanisms including continuous trading (dynamic bid/ask), various auction styles (one-to-many or many-to-many), negotiation-based trading as well as combinations of these market mechanisms.

The three-way alliance comes at a time when Internet-based electronic exchange systems are rapidly growing in popularity among established European and North American exchanges. These exchanges are seeking to extend their business to support both new products and new market mechanisms as well as migrate established products to the Internet in order to broaden the reach of their trading communities. In addition, many so-called "over-the-counter" or phone/fax-based marketplaces are migrating to electronic platforms that operate over the Internet to reduce trading costs and improve operational efficiency.

Similar trends are evident in Japan as well, and with the ongoing deregulation of financing dealings in Japan, demand for the technology solutions and expertise to develop and deploy such exchanges is expected to grow rapidly. Hitachi, HPJ and ePIT will be at the forefront in providing an enterprise-class exchange solution that leverages the strengths of each of the alliance members.

"Exchange operators want the technological flexibility to meet their unique business requirements, but they need a solid architecture grounded in best-of-class, standards-based components," said Timothy Campbell, President and CEO of ePIT. "I am delighted that Hitachi and Hewlett-Packard Japan -- two of the world's leading technology companies -- are joining ePIT in marketing a comprehensive trading solution. This combination of ePIT, Hewlett-Packard and Hitachi component products and services gives e-marketplaces a true best-of-breed technology solution."

Time-to-market is a critical concern for exchange operators. ePIT's technology abstracts the business logic and trading rules from an underlying transaction engine and implements them through a separate customization layer. Hitachi estimates that this component-based approach will enable the alliance to design and implement new e-marketplaces in roughly five to nine months. The previous generation of electronic exchange systems required a minimum of one to two years to deploy.

Hitachi is one of the dominant providers of exchange technology and services in Japan and has provided core systems to most of the major regulated exchanges. Hewlett-Packard is a leading provider of Web technologies to support high availability and highly scalable transaction systems and serves many of the world's leading Internet transaction sites. Hitachi will deploy the ePIT trading solution on its HITACHI9000V server line and provide middleware products, technical support, consultation, system design, solution implementation and system integration. HPJ will provide consulting services, infrastructure design and system management and clustering products.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1999 (ended March 31, 2000) consolidated sales of 8,001 billion yen ($75.5 billion(a)). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com/. (a)(At an exchange rate of 106 yen to the dollar.)

About Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services -- is focused on making technology and its benefits accessible to individuals and businesses through simple appliances, useful e-services and an Internet infrastructure that's always on.

HP has 88,500 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $48.8 billion in its 2000 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

About ePIT, Inc.

ePIT, Inc. (www.epit.com) delivers technology solutions that power successful e-marketplaces. Regardless of what's being traded or the rules of a market, ePIT provides the solutions that create a scalable, dynamic Internet trading environment. From auctions to negotiated markets to continuous exchanges, ePIT powers Internet markets.