Nissho Electronics and STARBAK Communications Sign Long-Term Distribution Agreement to Meet High Demand in Asia-Pacific Market

Business Wire, July 1, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

Nissho Showcases STARBAK's Products at Network Interop 2002

Tokyo

STARBAK Communications, the leader in award-winning, robust streaming media middleware solutions and Nissho Electronics Corporation, today announced that they have entered a strategic partnership agreement, whereby Nissho Electronics Corporation will introduce STARBAK's Torrent(TM) family of products into the Asia-Pacific market. Nissho Electronics will be showcasing the market-leading STARBAK products in the Network Interop show in Japan, July 1-4 at the Nihon Convention Center at Makuhari Messe in booth #2B04.

Under the agreement, Nissho will resell STARBAK's award-winning Torrent family of products, including the Torrent VCG and Torrent OSA to the Asian market. STARBAK's Torrent VCG is the world's first and only videoconferencing to streaming media gateway. STARBAK's Torrent OSA is the world's best origin streaming appliance for streaming rich media in multiple formats over the Internet and the only origin streaming appliance to pass the origin server certification tests from Microsoft. Headquartered in Tokyo, Nissho Electronics has distribution and partnership agreements with some of the world's leading communications companies.

"This relationship underscores STARBAK's commitment to provide access to IP conferencing and streaming media to anyone, anywhere," said Garrett Dreier, STARBAK's President and CEO. "The introduction of STARBAK's technology to the Asia-Pacific market clearly reflects the quality, support and performance of the Torrent family of products. We are pleased to be working together with Nissho on this, and are confident that their proven expertise in marketing and developing advanced technology products will provide our Asia-Pacific customers with the support they want."

"After thoroughly reviewing the streaming media solutions available on the market, we selected STARBAK because of their impossible to beat price-performance," said Mizuki Enomoto, Specialist, Product Management Team for the E-Solutions Group in the IT Infrastructure Division of Nissho Electronics Corporation. "We see in STARBAK a strong strategic partner to support our leadership position as the provider of high-performance streaming media technology to our customer base in the Asia-Pacific market."

"We are very excited to be working with Nissho on the penetration of the STARBAK products into the Asia-Pacific market," said Dan Acquafredda, STARBAK's VP of Sales. "Our strong relationship with Nissho reflects STARBAK's commitment to developing solid, long-term, strategic partnerships for continued support of our end-user customers around the globe."

To see the Torrent family of products, or learn more about Nissho Electronics Corporation, please visit Nissho at the N I Japan show in the Nihon Convention Center at Makuhari Messe from July 1-4, at booth #2B04.

About Nissho Electronics Corporation

Since its inception in 1969, Nissho Electronics Corporation has provided best-in-breed technology products and services from around the world to the Japanese market. As one of Japan's leading distributors and system integrators, Nissho Electronics handles various products and services from over a hundred business partners in the fields of information technology, telecommunications, semiconductors and electronics. With nearly 800 staff, 16 offices throughout Japan and 2 offices in the US for efficient international communications, Nissho Electronics can support all our customers on site 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For more information, please visit our website at: www.nelco.com or call us at 408-969-9700.

About STARBAK

STARBAK Communications, privately funded, is dedicated to reducing the cost and complexity of delivering streaming multimedia to customers, employees, and business partners. The company has implemented high performance Windows Media and RTSP streaming and cache proxy engines running under various UNIX operating systems including Linux. These solutions are easily integrated into existing network infrastructures while providing performance far superior to competitive products, including the ability to stream multiple formats from a single unit. Founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 2000, STARBAK's first product, the Torrent Streaming Media Network Appliance, was launched in Q2 of 2001. Its Torrent CE Videoconferencing Gateway is the winner of Internet Telephony's prestigious Product of the Year Award. For more information, please visit our website at: www.starbak.com.

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