Executive Suite: Siemens and 3Com Select General Manager and Board Members for Planned Converged Networking Joint Venture. Top Executives From Siemens, 3Com and Siemens' New Unisphere Solutions Selected - Company Operations

EDGE, On & About AT&T, March 22, 1999

Siemens and 3Com Corporation Wednesday announced the selection of senior management for the joint venture that they are forming to develop converged voice/data solutions for enterprises. Hans Schwarz, currently senior vice president and general manager of Enterprise Data Networking for Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc., will become general manager of the joint venture.

He joined Siemens in 1973 and has held senior-level management positions in various technology groups within the company in both Europe and the United States. In his most recent position with Siemens, he directed sales and development of enterprise network products as well as development for switch, networking and application products in the U.S. Under Schwarz's direction, the joint venture will develop products for business enterprises. Unisphere Solutions, Inc., a new Siemens company, will manage Siemens' activities in the joint venture "The joint venture will have access to critical resources for convergence and has the full commitment of both parent companies for establishing world-class technology leadership with the converged networking products under development," said Schwarz. Siemens and 3Com have also named four executives to become members of the joint venture's board of directors. From Siemens they are Tom Burkardt, chairman and president of Castle Networks, Inc., which Siemens announced it is acquiring and to become part of Unisphere Solutions; and Bernd Kuhlin, senior vice president, LAN Products, Siemens Information and Communication Networks Group. Burkardt founded Castle in 1997. From 3Com they are Janice Roberts, senior vice president, business development; and Edgar Masri, senior vice president, 3Com Network Systems Business Unit. Roberts is responsible for 3Com's business development worldwide, including acquisitions, investments and emerging business opportunities. Masri is responsible for 3Com's broad range of networking system solutions for enterprises, carriers and ISPs. Plans for Joint Venture Proceeding The joint venture planning team is meeting its milestones to bring together the best of breed talent, experience and core technologies for converged networks. Appointing proven management leadership for the joint venture further emphasizes 3Com's and Siemens' strong commitment to their shared vision for convergence of voice and data over a single network -- a way to provide businesses significant telecommunications cost-savings and powerful new business applications. "We now have named a strong, dedicated management team for the joint venture and are ready to further develop our vision for converged networks," said Janice Roberts, senior vice president, business development for 3Com. "We believe that the prospects for our relationship look even broader now that we will be working closely with the Unisphere Solutions team. This will enhance our ability to move fast and to evolve with each company's separate, yet complementary, business objectives." "The planned Siemens and 3Com joint venture will be a key element of our enterprise strategy," said Martin C. Clague, president and CEO of Unisphere Solutions. "We believe that the team assembled by the companies is second to none in this industry and I am looking forward to our future collaboration." Solution Strengths Emerging from Complementary Core Competencies Certain joint development activities that Siemens and 3Com undertook under the existing alliance have already resulted in significant advances for both companies. Last year, Siemens began shipping the LAN-based real-time communication solution HiNet RC 3000 call processing software. The HiNet RC 3000 enables voice and video connections, automatic call distribution and call-center applications with corresponding Quality of Service (QoS) at a level of quality previously possible only in telephone networks to be delivered over an existing LAN. The HiNet RC 3000 portfolio of products, services and solutions comprises a gateway that enables interworking between Hicom communication systems and LANs as well as connectivity to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a client, a web-based management tool and applications that are easily customized to a customer's requirements. Since January, 3Com has been offering customers the SuperStack II PBX 1000 and 3Com digital phones and adapters. SuperStack II is 3Com's brand of stackable local area network (LAN) hubs, switches, remote access and wide area networking products. The 3Com PBX is based on Siemens Hicom 150E technology and offers businesses the advantages of integrating their LAN and PBX equipment in a single stackable system, managed by a common application. Hicom is Siemens' leading communications server brand. Through the existing alliance and the planned joint venture, Siemens and 3Com will continue to develop enhancements to their stackable LAN telephony and gateway products - aimed at networks of up to 500 users. The joint venture plans to apply these technologies to develop additional highly scalable chassis products based on 3Com's CoreBuilder products. CoreBuilder systems are geared toward large sites primarily consisting of 500 to 5,000 users. Joint venture products will be designed to provide telephony-quality availability to ensure reliable dial tone and to support real-time, interactive multimedia traffic. Expected products include a range of multimedia exchanges* for voice and data, LAN telephony gateways and Ethernet phones and adapters. Initial applications for these products include voice-enhanced PC collaboration and conferencing, call centers for Internet-based retailers, and customer service help desks for a variety of industries, such as financial services, consumer product manufacturing, healthcare, government and education. The Siemens Information and Communication Networks Group was established on October 1, 1998 as part of the restructuring of the Siemens information and communication activities. The Group has around 60,000 employees and sales of about $14 billion, making it one of the world's leading suppliers of end-to-end solutions for voice, data and mobile networks. Information and Communication Networks provides products, systems, solutions, servicing and support for setting up, operating and maintaining complete corporate and carrier networks. It also offers ancillary services ranging from network planning and financial consultancy through startup support to user training. Further information on this Siemens Group can be found on the Internet at http://www.siemens.com/ic/networks/. With more than 200 million customers worldwide, 3Com Corporation connects more people to information in more ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers innovative information access products and network system solutions to large, medium and small enterprises; carriers and network service providers; PC OEMs; and consumers. FMI: www.3com.com. Unisphere Solutions, Inc., based in Burlington, Mass., designs, markets and services converged networking solutions to Service Provider and Enterprise customers. Founded in March 1999 by Siemens, the company brings together the know-how of over 500 people, concentrating assets from both Siemens Information and Communication Networks Group and several technology companies being acquired in the United States to deliver end-to-end networking solutions for converged networks. The Company leverages its relationship as a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens to gain access to a channel of Siemens Information and Communication Networks' 26,000 sales and support people worldwide. Further information on Unisphere Solutions can be found on the Internet at http://www.unispheresolutions.com