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Apax, Intel Invest in SuSE Linux - Company Financial Information

SuSE Linux AG, one of the leading suppliers of Linux worldwide, announced Wednesday that it is receiving equity funding from two investors.

Subject to shareholder agreement, funds advised by the internationally renowned venture capital group Apax Partners (Apax Europe IV and Patricof/USA) and Intel will invest 12 million Euro in the Linux specialist. The funds will be used to aid future growth.

Founded in 1992, SuSE publishes a Linux distribution and provides professional services covering the Linux operating system. Between 1998 and 1999, SuSE doubled its staff from 100 to over 200 people, and achieved a turnover of 10 million Euro. The company's management expects turnover of 22 million Euro in 1999.

"This investment will enable us to continue to pursue our strategy of growth in the rapidly expanding Linux market segment. With the funds from Apax and Intel, we have acquired international investors who, through their market expertise and strategic network of contacts, will be instrumental in SuSE's expansion and IPO efforts," said Roland Dyroff, chairman of SuSE Linux AG.

"With our stake in SuSE we have made use of the unique chance to invest in the European Linux market leader. In some areas Linux will become a real alternative to Windows NT and UNIX and therefore gain access to the IT departments of big corporations," commented Peter Blumenwitz, IT-expert at Apax Partners.

Tim Keating, director, Content Group, Intel EMEA, said: "Intel is investing in SuSE because we want to encourage the diffusion of Linux on Intel-based computers in Europe. Our focus will be the PentiumIII Xeon processor and eventually the Intel Itanium processor."

SuSE will use the investments to set up new sales and support offices worldwide. The main functions of these subsidiaries will be to sell SuSE Linux and commercial Linux products and to establish and support a comprehensive network of SuSE Business Partners.

SuSE also aims to create more service capacity worldwide for professional users. SuSE is able to offer complete Linux solutions to its business customers, whether they are in databases, security, Internet connectivity or corporate networking. The services SuSE provides include server system design, implementation and configuration; broad training offerings; and complete infrastructure consultancy, all combined with a comprehensive choice of commercial software.

SuSE, with a workforce of over 200 people, is one of the leading international Linux companies. SuSE has offices in Germany, the UK, Czech Republic and in the U.S. SuSE Linux is used by more than 50,000 business customers worldwide due to its stability and high quality.

SuSE offers an extensive range of qualified consulting and support services for using Linux in a business environment, as well as commercial Linux software and complete Linux systems. SuSE contributes considerably to Linux development projects such as the Linux kernel, glibc, XFree86, KDE, ISDN4Linux, ALSA (AdvancedLinux Sound Architecture) and USB (Universal Serial Bus). Get further information about SuSE on http://www.suse.de/en or by sending mail to suse@suse.de.

The investment pools advised by Apax Partners & Co. (www.apax.de) invest capital in growing companies, primarily in five industries: Telecommunications, information technology, media, Internet/ e-commerce health and retail and Financial Services.

Within these industries the Apax Investment Pools invest in all phases of a company -- from new start-ups to major management buy-outs (MBOs). The investment pools advised by Apax Partners & Co. worldwide amount to a good DM 10 billion.

Linux is a multi-purpose Unix operating system. Among the special features of the system are its stability and its comprehensive networking functionality. These features have earned Linux an excellent reputation as a server operating system. Today, Linux is fast becoming popular as a desktop operating system. This success was possible thanks to easy-to-use interfaces and a rapidly growing number of applications for Linux. Linux is free software. This is why SuSE Linux also contains the source code of the individual packets. This freedom means that Linux is a uniquely flexible system which can be adapted to the individual requirements of its users. SuSE Linux offers a current Linux system to the user combined with a carefully assembled choice of applications which can be installed easily and securely.