Bull and NEC enter into a new collaboration model
NEC has reduced its stake in Bull from 10.1% to 3%, shifting position from a financial partner to an industrial partner targeting high-growth market segments
Paris,
September
26, 2005 -
Bull announces today a redefinition of its long-standing equity and industrial partnership with NEC.
The relationship between Bull and NEC has been in place for many years. Significant milestones in the relationship included:
· A presence of NEC as a Bull shareholder since the early 90's, with NEC being an active supporter of Bull's successful recapitalization plan in 2004.
· Two-way exchanges of technologies in the 80's and 90's for mainframe systems.
· An OEM and collaboration agreement for the Express5800TM product line, a full range of servers leveraging x86 processors, that was put in place in 1997.
For their own financial reasons, NEC, previously a shareholder of Bull with 10.1% equity, has lowered its stake in Bull to 3.0%. The sale of Bull shares held by NEC took place today off the regulated market. At the time of issuance of this release all Bull shares eligible for sale have been successfully tendered into the market, demonstrating the renewed confidence of investors in the medium-term potential of the company.
At the same time, Bull and NEC, extending on their relationship over the long years, have decided to strengthen their industrial partnership, expanding their collaboration into new solutions business opportunities in high-growth market segments.
The two companies have entered into joint discussions to elaborate plans. As of now, the two companies are actively considering arrangements such as forming joint ventures or developing affiliates. For this purpose, NEC is considering an investment of up to 20 million euros.
A first target, security and identity management has been identified. Both companies will be working on mutual enrichment of product/solutions portfolio and will initiate a technology co-operation. Bull Evidian will be central to this co-operation, and an investment of 10 million euros is being considered by NEC for this initiative.
NEC and Bull will also be expanding already-existing collaborations through strong sales and marketing promotion activities. NEC and Bull will launch a joint initiative in the area of IT systems infrastructure, notably through marketing programs and the creation of a European Technology Center demonstrating joint technologies.
Commenting upon the announcement, Mr Didier Lamouche, Chairman and CEO of Bull stated: "Bull and NEC have been strong partners for many years. While NEC remains a Bull shareholder I am pleased to see NEC's involvement in Bull shift from a financial partnership to a more industrial one, into domains that represent strong growth potential".
Contacts
Bull
Matthew Foxton - Communication
Phone: 33 (0) 1 30 80 37 33
Patrick Massoni - Analysts Relations
Phone: 33 (0) 1 30 80 32 36
About Bull, Architect of an Open World
As one of the leading European IT companies, Bull delivers open, flexible and secure information systems. The group helps public and private sector customers transform their information systems, applying its know-how and expertise in three main areas:
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Capitalizing on its extensive mainframe experience, Bull designs and produces robust, innovative and open servers, based on industry-standard technologies;
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Building on its alliances with leading ISVs, Bull develops and implements flexible and interoperable application infrastructures which give business processes the freedom to evolve;
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Bringing together recognized expertise in end-to-end IT security, Bull secures data and exchanges that are so critical in preserving customers' business integrity.
Bull has a particularly strong presence in the public, healthcare, finance, telecommunications, manufacturing and defense sectors. Its distribution network and business partners cover more than 60 countries worldwide.
For more information visit: http://www.bull.com
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