ABB Launches E-commerce Website To Sell Low-Horsepower AC Drives.

NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 1999--ABB announced today that it has launched an innovative e-commerce website, the first to sell low-horsepower AC drives. The site, live around the world at (http://www.comp-ac.com), offers customers for complex industrial products the same easy shopping features they are used to on consumer e-commerce sites.

Drives are electronic motor control devices. They are important parts of industrial control systems, and their ready availability is critical to avoiding project delays. Using ABB's new site, purchasers will be able to configure equipment to their requirements and complete their transactions using a standard credit card--as if they were buying boots or books.

ABB Drives & Power Products, New Berlin, Wis. supplies a complete line of electric drives, motors and engineered drive systems for industrial and commercial applications.

ABB, with U.S. headquarters in Norwalk, Conn., serves customers in power generation, transmission, and distribution; automation; oil, gas, and petrochemicals; industrial products and contracting; and financial services. ABB and its affiliates had U.S. orders of approximately $6.5 billion in 1997 and employ about 22,000 at manufacturing and other facilities in 41 states (http://www.abb.com/usa).

Worldwide, ABB Group reported orders of $31 billion in 1998 and employed about 200,000 people in more than 100 countries (http://www.abb.com/). In the United States, ADRs for shares in ABB Group's parent companies, ABB AB and ABB AG, are traded on the NASDAQ exchange (ABBBY) and in the OTC market (ABBGY), respectively.