ELON--Echelon Announces Close of $130 Million Common Stock Sale to Enel SpA
CEO of Enel Will Join Echelon's Board of Directors
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 2000--Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ:ELON - news) today announced that it received clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 in connection with the previously announced agreement with Enel SpA (NYSE:EN - news; Milan:ENEL) for Enel to purchase 3 million shares of newly issued Echelon common stock and has closed the transaction for $130.9 million USD, the maximum price of the previously announced price range. Enel now holds approximately 8% of Echelon's common stock. Additionally Francesco Tato, Enel's director and chief executive officer, will assume a seat on Echelon's Board of Directors.
``We are pleased to receive an early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period and to welcome Enel to our Board of Directors,'' stated M. Kenneth Oshman, Echelon's chairman, president and CEO. ``Enel's Mr. Tato brings a significant world view and extraordinary business savvy to Echelon's already outstanding Board. His leadership has made Enel a worldwide leader among utilities in meeting the challenges of deregulation with innovative solutions employing advanced technologies.''
As announced in June of this year, Echelon and Enel signed an R&D agreement under which the two companies will cooperate to integrate Echelon's LonWorks® system into Enel's remote metering management project called ``Contatore Elettronico.'' Pursuant to this project, Enel expects to provide (on a three-year rollout period) approximately 27 million Italian households with electricity digital meters, capable of being integrated into a complete home networking infrastructure. The Contatore Elettronico project is expected to allow Enel to offer consumers more accurate and timely meter readings and innovative tariff schemes (subject to regulatory approval) facilitating energy savings; moreover, the project is expected to allow the delivery of value-added services. The platform introduced by Enel's Contatore Elettronico project is planned to be an open system that will allow other operators to provide their value-added services.
About Echelon Corporation
Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON - news) is the world leader in networking everyday devices. The company offers a comprehensive line of hardware and software products for automating building, home, industrial, transportation, and utility applications using LonWorks® networks, an international, cross-industry, open standard for interoperable device networks. Echelon is Bringing the Internet to Life(TM) by linking the millions of everyday devices connected with LonWorks networks to the Internet.
Echelon is based in Sunnyvale, California with international offices in China, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Further information can be found at echelon.com.
Echelon's LonWorld2000(TM) Conference and Exhibition is designed to help end-users, integrators, service providers, and manufacturers learn how to use the LonWorks system in their business. The conference will take place on October 18-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida and features a series of forums, classes and presentations along with an exhibition of products and services covering the home/utility, building, industrial, and transportation markets. Enel will deliver a keynote address at the conference. Sponsorship, registration and exhibition information about LonWorld2000 can be found at lonworld2000.com.
About Enel SpA
Enel SpA is the principal electricity company in Italy and the largest traded electric utility (New York Stock Exchange - EN and Milan - ENEL) worldwide with the leading position in the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity.
The company, with 1999 revenues in excess of L40,000 billion (approximately $20 billion) and 79,000 employees, serves more than 29 million customers.
Enel's most significant business outside its core electricity operations is its 56.6% interest in WIND, a joint venture in the telecommunications industry with France Telecom. WIND launched its convergent fixed and mobile telephony services on March 1, 1999 and as of today has already reached about 6 million customers.
Further information can be found at enel.it.
This press release may contain statements relating to future plans, events or performance with respect to the Contatore Elettronico. These forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of the management of ENEL and Echelon as well as on assumptions made by and information available to these companies at the time these statements are made. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, including the risk that any required regulatory approvals are not obtained, that the transactions contemplated are challenged by third parties, that the R&D activities and Contatore Elettronico project do not meet their target dates, do not yield economic returns, are not commercially exploitable or are terminated, and other risks identified in ENEL's and Echelon's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Neither ENEL nor Echelon undertake any obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Echelon, LonWorks, LonMark, the LonMark logo, and the Echelon logo are trademarks of Echelon Corporation registered in the United States and other countries. LonWorld2000 and Bringing the Internet to Life are trademarks of Echelon Corporation. Other marks belong to their respective holders |
