Partnership Coupled with Strategic Investment

London, Dresden - June 14th, 2001 - Systemonic, the wireless communications platform provider, and Sony Venture Capital Europe, the venture capital arm of Sony Europe, today announced that they have entered a strategic partnership.

Under the terms of this agreement, Sony and Systemonic executives will investigate the use of Systemonic technology to enable wireless communications capabilities in a wide variety of Sony product types. In addition, Systemonic will provide Sony enhanced access to its technology and products. Sony has also made an equity investment in Systemonic as a result of this agreement.

Enabling broadband wireless communication at 5 GHz, Systemonic's platform is the first to enable flexible multi-standard, multi-mode solutions for the global marketplace. Initial solutions will support the European HiperLAN 2 and US IEEE802.11a, among other regional standards.

Ruediger Stroh, CEO of Systemonic, commented: "The wireless broadband communications market has been estimated by analysts to be worth anything between $5 billion and $8 billion by 2005. Sony provides an industry-leading partner to help us to secure a dominant position in this market. We look forward to working closely with them to develop a range of market-leading consumer products."

Systemonic's platform allows implementation of core wireless functionality to be programmed into embedded firmware as opposed to being hardwired into silicon. As a result, their system-on-chip solution and tool set can offer Sony flexibility in standards as well as the ability to add other important features to meet market requirements.

Barry Gravenhorst, General Manager of Sony Venture Capital Europe, added: "Systemonic is a strong young innovative company with a highly capable management team and expertise in the emerging broadband wireless communications market. Its DSP technology platform will bring significant value to this type of communication at 5GHz, and will address the future needs of next generation broadband enabled products."

About Systemonic
Systemonic is a wireless communications platform provider that delivers complete Silicon System Solutions that power wireless data, video and voice networks across standards, across the world. Its flexible, re-configurable platform allows customers to bring wireless communications products that support multiple standards to market faster, with more features, lower power consumption and at a lower total cost of ownership.
In November 2000, Systemonic completed second round funding of USD 30 million from an investment consortium led by Atlas Venture and APAX Europe IV, including, Krone mt, and Lehman Brothers.

Systemonic was founded in 1999 after four years of research at the University of Dresden.

About Sony
Sony manufactures audio, video, communications and information technology products for the global consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, game and online businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to become a leading personal broadband network company in the 21st century. In Europe, Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of close to EUR 14.42 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000. Sony Europe, headquartered in Berlin, is responsible for the company's European electronics business and registered consolidated sales of close to EUR 8.50 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000. The investment in Systemonic was made by SonyVenture Capital Europe, the venture capital arm of Sony Europe.