FPC also announced the appointment of Ned Gaffney, 55, as field vice president of corporate sales. Mr. Gaffney will be responsible for building and managing a nationwide sales team to further expand FPC's presence in the corporate market.

With this purchase, Reebok named FPC as a Reebok corporate standard vendor, marking the first time that Reebok has simultaneously purchased products from a new vendor and designated them a corporate standard supplier. The feature-rich LifeBook 500 Series notebooks that Reebok bought will be used primarily for sales force automation activities. Salespeople in the company's Reebok and Rockport divisions will use them to give presentations, place orders, retrieve order status, maintain product information, and manage their general productivity needs.

According to Reebok vice president and chief technology officer Peter Burrows, "Reebok was specifically seeking a notebook computer supplier that could provide the highest levels of product reliability and service. In FPC, we found not only these capabilities, but a strong commitment to overall product quality, an innovative design philosophy, and an outstanding support program. We're delighted to provide our field sales force with the LifeBook computers, and we look forward to a long term relationship with FPC."

New Field VP Spearheads Corporate Sales Expansion

The Reebok win represents the beginning of an aggressive corporate sales program, further supported by the addition of Ned Gaffney to the FPC management team. Mr. Gaffney has more than 30 years of sales management experience in the computer industry. He spent 17 years at IBM in various corporate sales and management positions before joining Apple in 1983, where he held a wide range of sales management responsibilities. During that time he was most notably responsible for initiating and launching Apple's current corporate sales program.

As field VP of corporate sales, Mr. Gaffney will focus initially on creating a highly targeted account program for developing long-term relationships with a select number of corporate customers. Within this structure, he will define an account management framework to provide highly interactive communications between FPC's field and executive offices, as well as close working partnerships with key channel and other third-party partners. The program will prioritize FPC's consistent delivery of the factors most critical to corporate buyers, including product quality and availability, leading-edge features, customer service and support, and competitive pricing. Mr. Gaffney will also implement a host of innovative value-added sales programs for corporate customers.

"FPC's goal is to quickly become a leader in notebook sales to corporate customers. Ned has the expertise we need to lead this effort," said George Everhart, president of FPC. "He and his group will work closely with FPC's channel partners to further refine our corporate sales strategy and address corporate market demand. Ned has a history of developing long-term working relationships with key corporate customers, earning him the hard-won trust of corporate buyers nationwide. We are delighted to have him on our team."

The LifeBook 500 Series: Ideal for Corporate Users

The LifeBook 500 is a multimedia mobile computing tool with flexible, modular options, and an innovative industrial design. A distinguishing feature of the LifeBook 500 series is the ability to share common peripherals, such as batteries, hard drives, CD-ROM drives, floppy disk drives, and memory and docking options, across multiple configurations. For corporate customers, this provides a standard set of connectivity, storage and power devices that function with a full spectrum of product offerings for optimum flexibility among users.

Available in a full-featured, 7-pound form factor and powered by Lithium ion batteries, the LifeBook 500 Series boasts Intel 120MHz and 133MHz PentiumO processors and 150MHz Pentium processors with MMX technology, PCI Card and CardBus architectures, and bright 11.3" or 12.1-inch active-matrix (TFT) screens. This full multimedia offering also includes high-speed CD-ROM drives, MPEG-1 support, Zoomed Video support and a 28.8 or 33.6 fax/modem (exact specifications vary by model).

The Corporate Bundle of software applications preloaded on all LifeBook 500 notebooks includes Microsoft^(R) DOS 6.0/Windows for Workgroups^(R) 3.11 or Windows 95^(R), LapLink (R) file transfer software by Traveling Software, the SoftPEG^(R) MPEG-1 full motion video player by CompCore Multimedia and PC Doctor^(R) diagnostic software by Watergate Software.

Fujitsu PC Corporation

Fujitsu PC Corporation was formed in February 1996 by $36 billion worldwide IT conglomerate Fujitsu Limited of Japan to expand its business into the North American PC market. Chartered with providing quality mobile computing and communications solutions that meet and exceed the demands of the U.S. marketplace, FPC introduced the LifeBook Family - a series of notebooks that seamlessly integrate into an individual's life, and aren't simply extensions of business. The company has a full design center at its headquarters, 598 Gibraltar Drive, Milpitas, California and a manufacturing facility in Hillsboro, Oregon. Visit the FPC website at www.fujitsu-pc.com or call 888-4-ON-THE-GO for additional information.

Reebok International Ltd.

Reebok International Ltd., headquartered in Stoughton, Mass., is a leading worldwide designer, marketer and distributor of sports, fitness and casual footwear, apparel and equipment. Principal operating units include the Reebok Division and the Rockport Company, Inc. Sales for 1996 totaled approximately $3.5 billion. Reebok can be accessed on the World Wide Web at www.reebok.com.

LifeBook, Fujitsu and the Fujitsu logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fujitsu Limited. Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corp. Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.