Alcatel Ventures Leads $32 Million Venture Round In Mockingbird Networks

Alcatel Ventures today announced it is leading a $32 million round of venture financing in Mockingbird Networks, a global leader in carrier-grade VoIP application switches. Also participating in this round is top-tier Silicon Valley-based Technology Crossover Ventures. This funding will enable Mockingbird to accelerate its investment in engineering, sales, marketing and operations as the company ramps up its production of the highly-acclaimed Nuvo VoIP application switches.

Steve Y. Kim, Managing Partner of Alcatel Ventures said, "We look for three things in our investments: a huge market opportunity, a compelling technology with a sustainable advantage, and a management team committed to excellence. We are pleased to be leading this round of financing for Mockingbird Networks, as we believe they have all of the ingredients for success."

"The next generation network will only realize its full potential with key technology like Mockingbird's VoIP application switch which allows service providers to quickly and easily deploy enhanced voice services," said Rick Kimball, a founding general partner at TCV. "We look forward to working with Mockingbird's team as the company leads the development of these critical platforms for service providers building out next generation Internet infrastructure."

"It is very exciting for us to be working with two such prestigious venture firms with excellent investment track records in the telecommunications industry," said Craig Forney, Mockingbird CEO. "We have made tremendous headway at Mockingbird, and see the momentum accelerating rapidly with the advice and counsel of the partners at Alcatel Ventures and TCV."

About Alcatel Ventures

Alcatel Ventures (www.alcatelventures.com) is a value added venture capital partnership that invests in privately held companies which command unique technology. Alcatel Ventures invests primarily in US technology companies that address large or rapidly growing market opportunities related to hardware and software--wireless communications, computer networking, telecommunications infrastructure, optical components and networking, the Internet, and unique semiconductor chips. Alcatel Ventures is primarily focused on investing in early stage technology companies, although it will consider later stage investments where a minimum return of five times or more is likely. Alcatel Ventures' typical investments are between $500K to $6 million in any given round. Alcatel Ventures is headquartered in Los Angeles and has offices in Silicon Valley, San Diego, Boston and Seoul, Korea.

About TCV

Technology Crossover Ventures (www.tcv.com) was founded in 1995 to capitalize on the emergence of the Internet and to create a new model for Internet investing by combining the best of venture capital and public market investing. It is one of the largest venture firms in the country focused exclusively on the Internet, having raised over $2.5 billion since 1995. TCV has twelve partners, and headquarters in Palo Alto, California. The company provides multi-stage venture funding -- from $3 million to $75 million per company - and leverages its venture activity into the public market. Over the past five years, TCV has invested in over 125 portfolio companies. Fifteen of TCV's companies had their initial public offerings in 1999, while another 10 companies are in registration.

About Mockingbird

Mockingbird Networks (www.mockingbirdnetworks.com) integrated VoIP application switches enable next-generation carriers and voice application service providers to rapidly deploy new, service-differentiating voice applications across IP networks. Mockingbird's distributed switching architecture uses the IP backbone as the switching fabric so that its carrier-class VoIP application switches provide virtually unlimited scalability. Mockingbird VoIP application switches feature an open systems, standards-based design, UNIX operating system and integrated SS7 capability, making them the platform of choice by forward-thinking OEMs and service providers. Founded in 1997, Mockingbird Networks is a Silicon Valley-based, privately held company with funding from Wasserstein Adelson Ventures, L.P., the venture capital arm of Wasserstein Perella Group; BayView Investors, Ltd.; and others.