Ancor Signs OEM Agreement to Provide Fibre Channel
Switches to Sun Microsystems
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Number One UNIX Storage Provider Chooses Ancor to Grow Storage Networks
MINNEAPOLIS, June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Ancor Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:
ANCR) today announced an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement to
provide its Fibre Channel 8-port switches for Sun Microsystems' StorEdge(TM)
arrays.
"Our customers' storage requirements are doubling every nine to 12 months and
require a switched SAN solution that can scale with their growth," said Kathleen
Holmgren, vice president of business operations for Sun Network Storage. "We
chose Ancor because of its superior ability to scale and meet our customers'
current and future interconnect requirements."
"Sun's leadership position in the Fibre Channel storage market makes this win
especially significant as it endorses our current price/performance as well as our
future technology direction," said Cal Nelson, Ancor's president. "In addition, our
continued participation with Sun on the Project StoreX storage management
initiative will ensure we can jointly deliver the best open platforms for our
customers."
"In revenue terms, Sun was the leading supplier of UNIX disk storage systems in
1998," according to Robert Gray, industry analyst for International Data
Corporation. "This is an important win for Ancor, as Sun is also a pioneering
supplier of Fibre Channel-based storage and currently one of the leading providers
of Fibre technology."
As part of the agreement, Ancor has issued Sun Microsystems a warrant to
purchase up to 1,500,000 shares of Ancor common stock at a purchase price of
$7.30 per share. Vesting of the warrant occurs at the rate of one share for each $67
of revenue received from Sun.
Sun was first to introduce Fibre Channel to the industry in 1995. Subsequently, the
introduction of Sun's StorEdge A5x00 second generation of Fibre Channel products
in November 1997 has propelled the company to its position as number one UNIX
storage vendor. More than 3 PetaBytes (PB) of these advanced storage systems,
offering a full Fibre solution from the host through the drive, have been shipped to
date. The family of products is available for both the Solaris(TM) and Windows
NT(TM) operating systems.
About Ancor Fibre Channel Switches
Ancor's Fibre Channel switches are reliable, highly scalable devices that link
multiple servers and storage devices in storage area networks. Ancor's leading chip
technology supports exclusive features such as hard zoning for superior data
security and cross-connected configurations that enable SANs to grow while
maintaining high performance and storage network reliability. Ancor switches are
available in both eight and 16-port configurations and are sold to OEMs and select
distributors.
About Ancor Communications
Ancor Communications, Inc. provides GigWorks(TM) high-performance Fibre
Channel switches for storage and data-intensive network solutions, including
storage area networks (SANs). The company was the first to deliver a Fibre
Channel switch, and the first to top the one-gigabit performance level. Ancor is a
member of the Fibre Channel Association, the Storage Networking Industry
Alliance, the Fibre Channel Community, the ANSI Standards Committee, and the
University of New Hampshire Fibre Channel Consortium to promote the
advancement of Fibre Channel standards and interoperability. Information on Ancor
is available on the World Wide Web at ancor.com .
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer(TM),"
has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), to its position as a
leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing
enterprise-wide Intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than
$11 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on
the World Wide Web at sun.com .
NOTE: GigWorks(TM), ANCOR(TM) and the Ancor logo are the marks and property
of Ancor Communications, Inc. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Sun
StorEdge, and "The Network is the Computer" are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
For more information about Fibre Channel technology and Ancor Fibre Channel
solutions, call 800-342-7379 or access World Wide Web site
ancor.com . Media, contact Mary Miller, Ancor, at 612-932-4071 or
marym@ancor.com or Aaron Pearson, Shandwick, at 612-841-6217 or
apearson@shandwick.com.
Forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995 are qualified by the risk factors outlined in the documents Ancor
Communications, Inc. files with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Statements contained in this press release regarding Sun Microsystems' future
purchases of Ancor's products are forward-looking statements. We cannot
guarantee the timing or amounts of purchases of our products by Sun
Microsystems, if any. Factors which may affect Ancor's ability to achieve the
results implied by such forward-looking statements include whether, as the Fibre
Channel market matures, Ancor is able to continue to provide the technology and
features required by the SAN market, or whether our products will ultimately meet
our customers' needs.
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