Westcon Group Completes Landis Transaction; Westcon Group Assumes Employees and Fixed Assets of...

Business Editors & Technology Writers

TARRYTOWN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2002

Westcon Group, Inc., a global channel provider of networking and telecommunications technology products, announced today that the Netherlands Court has approved Westcon's assumption of the employees

Westcon Group did not release the financial terms of the closing.

Westcon Group has assumed the networking distribution operations of Landis in nine (9) countries in Europe. These countries include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden. This transaction effectively makes Westcon Group one of Europe's largest voice and data networking distributors, and completes phase one of the company's strategy towards increasing its global footprint.

Each of the former Landis divisions will operate under the Westcon or Comstor divisional brands of Westcon Group, depending on the local countries' vendor product lines and market focus. This is consistent with the Westcon Group's vendor-focused distribution philosophy, which aligns core vendor and distributor competencies, ultimately enhancing Westcon Group's ability to deliver a greater value proposition to its customers. The Comstor division now has offices in the following European countries: the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Norway. The Westcon division now operates in the United Kingdom, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Sweden and Germany. These European locations are in addition to Westcon and Comstor's other international locations in Asia, South America, North America and Australia.

"The ultimate goal of this transaction has always been to make our customers more competitive by expanding our geographic coverage and giving them more technology to build comprehensive solutions," said Alan Marc Smith, president and CEO of Westcon Group. "Now the work can begin to integrate the operations and benefit from the synergies of both companies. I am pleased to say that our entire organization, including our new employees in Europe, is ecstatic about the opportunity to achieve these objectives for our customers."

Barry Shakespeare, president, channel marketing EMEA, Nortel Networks, commented: "This is a major step forward for Westcon, transforming them into a true, strategic global distributor for Nortel Networks. We will continue working together to deliver best of breed convergence solutions and services aligned with the business needs of our mutual customer base."

"We are very pleased to continue our cooperative relationship with the former Landis Business Partners unit, now Westcon Group," said G. Verest, marketing director of AAC Cosmos, a Netherlands-based customer of the former Landis Business Partners division. "Through Westcon Group, we gain value add through an enhanced technical and service capability, and an increased product portfolio. We hope the net result of this is more business opportunities for us."

Anil Srivastava, Avaya's vice president sales, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said, "We are delighted to extend our relationship with Westcon into Europe. Westcon not only has proven expertise and real added value in both voice and data networking, it also offers wide, established European coverage. With Westcon's ability to offer Avaya's full Enterprise Class IP Solutions (ECLIPS) portfolio, we are convinced that Avaya's growth strategy in the fast evolving convergence market space will be strongly reinforced by this relationship."

Paris Arey, vice president of EMEA channels and alliances, Cisco Systems, commented: "We are excited at the opportunity to engage with Comstor in Europe, and look forward to working with them in the future. The European market will be well served with Comstor's technical expertise and customer focus, as well as their newly gained critical mass."

Simon Tournadre, CEO of Alphamega, a former Landis reseller based in France, added, "Over the years, we have had a very good relationship with Landis, and we look forward to continuing this by welcoming Westcon Group into the French market. We look forward to having the talent of an internationally successful organization behind us. Westcon Group's reputation precedes itself with its sales, pre-sales, logistical and management know-how. We hope to build a profitable business relationship together and look forward to many new opportunities."

About Westcon Group

Westcon Group, Inc., is a global channel provider of networking technology. Through its divisions, Westcon, Comstor and Voda One, the company offers products and services for convergence technology, remote access, Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing, wireless connectivity and network security. Westcon Group, Inc., is located at 520 White Plains Road, Suite 100, Tarrytown, NY, USA 10591-5167; tel.: 914 829-7170; fax: 914 829-7137; www.westcongroup.com.