Dan Chu
Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers
(650) 233-3432
Leading Real Estate Companies and
Kleiner Perkins Create National
Telecommunications Company
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Broadband Office, Inc.
to Offer Comprehensive Telecommunications Solutions to
Businesses Nationally--
-- Company to Initially Serve Nationwide Tenant
Audience/Leverage Kleiner?s Strength Enter New Markets,
Serve Wider Array of Business Customers --
October 5, 1999, FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA - Eight of the
country?s largest real estate companies and the nation?s
premier venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and
Byers, today announced the formation of a national
telecommunications company, Broadband Office, Inc.
Formed over the past six months, Broadband Office brings a
unique approach to the introduction and delivery of next
generation telecommunications services to small to
mid-sized corporations.
Designed to provide state-of-the-art high bandwidth voice
and data communication services to a wide range of tenants
in office buildings across the country, Broadband Office will
solve a pressing telecommunications need for businesses and
offer an important competitive advantage to building
owners. Broadband Office will begin delivering services over
the next 45 days.
Under the terms of the agreement, a consortium of real
estate companies, including CarrAmerica Realty
Corporation (NYSE:CRE), Crescent Real Estate Equities
Company (NYSE:CEI), Duke-Weeks Realty Corporation
(NYSE:DRE), Equity Office Properties Trust (NYSE: EOP),
Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW), the Hines
organization, Mack-Cali Realty Corporation (NYSE:CLI)
and Spieker Properties, Inc. (NYSE:SPK), will retain a
meaningful ownership stake in Broadband Office and
provide access to their respective office property portfolios to
Broadband Office.
The real estate consortium commented: ?We are extremely
excited about the prospects for Broadband Office as we
believe the venture offers numerous benefits to our
respective tenants, shareholders and the real estate industry
at large. Our tenants will get what they've been asking for:
more choice, faster turn-up of mission critical
communications services, one-stop shopping and simplified
billing, supported by a world-class service organization. And
the founding real estate companies will benefit from a
mutual ownership arrangement that demonstrates their
desire to identify new avenues of growth and to serve as a
conduit for the delivery of a number of services to tenants,
further evidence of the power of owning real estate.?
Broadband Office?s initial national footprint will span
approximately 40 percent of all of the office space owned by
REITs in the United States and represent approximately 10
percent of the entire commercial office space market in the
United States. Broadband Office?s presence will span nearly
every major metropolitan area of the country, including the
30 largest office markets in the country and well over 2,000
office buildings. Moreover, Broadband Office is engaged in
further discussions with a number of other major real estate
owners to expand its number of buildings served and extend
the Company?s dominant position in the industry.
Kleiner Perkins has been a founding investor in a number of
the country's fastest growing and most successful businesses
including @Home, America Online, Amazon.com, Ascend,
Cerent, Compaq, Excite, Healtheon, Juniper Networks,
Netscape, Rhythms, and Sun Microsystems.
Kleiner Perkins General Partner Kevin Compton
commented: ?The goal of this company is nothing less than to
create the leading player in what we believe to be one of the
business world?s most dynamic industries ? the
telecommunications industry. Kleiner Perkins is confident
the competitive advantages afforded through our partners?
real estate holdings and strong tenant relationships, along
with our ability to broaden the market beyond that audience,
will propel Broadband Office to become the dominant
player in the building-centric telecommunications business.?
Broadband Office?s Board of Directors will consist of Kleiner
partners Kevin Compton and Vinod Khosla, as well as
leading executives from the telecommunications industry
and the founding real estate companies. The Company is
based in the Washington D.C. and the San Francisco Bay
areas.
Compton further commented, ?The success of Kleiner
Perkins-backed industry leaders like @Home, Amazon.com,
Juniper Networks and others has been predicated on our
ability to attract the technology and telecommunications
industry?s top talent. To that end, we are currently building
what we believe will be the deepest and most talented
management team in the industry ? we have already
assembled a broad senior executive team with prior
leadership experience from MCI Worldcom, Uunet, Level 3,
Booz-Allen Hamilton, Bell South, and other companies.?
Businesses will be able to purchase from Broadband a
comprehensive offering of increasingly important
communication services from a single vendor with a
minimum of complexity. Among the products the company
will offer are local and long distance voice service, high
speed Internet, data and video connectivity, voice and
e-mail, and web hosting. Over time, these bundled services
will be expanded to meet the changing telecommunication
needs of tenants and to capture a greater proportion of
telecommunication expenditures.
For more information on the company?s products and
services please visit our web site at www.broadbandoffice.net
Certain matters discussed within this press release may be
deemed to be forward looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Although it is believed the expectations reflected in
such forward looking statements are based on reasonable
assumptions, no assurance can be given that these
expectations will be attained. Factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from expectations include,
without limitation, lack of demand for service, insufficient
capital, risks associated with a start-up company,
contingencies in the applicable agreements, and the highly
competitive nature of the telecommunications industry.
Neither the Company nor any owners of the Company
assume any obligation to update or supplement
forward-looking statements that become untrue because of
subsequent events. |
