AVT Corporation Outlines Strategic Direction, Announces Reduction in Workforce, and Provides 2001 Financial Guidance.

Business Editors

KIRKLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2001

AVT Corporation (Nasdaq:AVTC), a leading provider of unified communications and mobile business solutions, today announced details to the company's new business strategy.

AVT's strategy will aggressively build a business model for growth based on the Mobile Business Solutions (MBS) market at the intersection of unified communications, mobility, and enterprise applications, while at the same time maximizing the return on its traditional businesses. In order to accelerate its growth, AVT will look at speed-to-market options such as the acquisition of technology and professional services infrastructure, as well as partnering opportunities.

AVT's focus will be on building its new technology while closely managing its traditional product lines, including RightFAX, CallXpress, and MediaLinq. As a part of the change in the strategic direction, the Company has consolidated its two primary product groups, the Computer Telephony Software Group (CTG) and Document Exchange Software Group (DESG). This shift in strategic direction will allow the company to increase its investment in and focus on the attractive market opportunities in the mobile business solutions area, while leveraging the company's existing core competencies around fax server and broadcast, unified messaging and unified communications.

These changes allow for the elimination of redundancies in areas such as finance and administration, operations, marketing, and support. As a result the Company has reduced its workforce by approximately 70 positions, or 14% of AVT's global workforce. A number of employees will remain with the company for a period of time in transitionary roles. Using its current products and its recent acquisition of Infinite Technologies as a springboard, AVT is entering into a new market at the intersection of the unified communications, mobility, and enterprise applications markets. The space, which includes enabling software and end-to-end solutions, is expected to reach $30 billion by 2003 and will support significant growth. The acquisition of Infinite Technologies will increase the Company's ability to offer customers mobile wireless access to messaging, groupware and CRM applications.

With the appointment of David Anastasi as President and CEO late last year, the company embarked on an extensive market and strategy evaluation. "Research indicates that the growth of mobile communications is driving and transforming the unified messaging space," stated Anastasi. "With the acquisition of Infinite Technologies and the organizational changes that we are implementing today, we are well poised to leverage our current channel partnerships and strategic alliances as well as develop new ones." The market research led us to the long-term strategy that cashes in on the value of the company's core businesses, while it expands on market opportunities within the mobile wireless sector.

A substantial portion of the investment required to implement the new strategy and products will come from earnings generated by existing product lines. Additional investment will be required to meet the demands of implementing the Company's strategic initiatives. As a result, AVT expects to post a loss of between $(0.16) and $(0.24) per share for the year 2001 on revenues of $88 to $92 million. The loss for the first quarter is anticipated to range from $(0.05) and $(0.09) per share on revenues of $19 and $22 million. The loss per share figures are before any one-time charges or amortization of goodwill.

"We have thoroughly evaluated the market and believe that business as usual will not create sustainable shareholder value," said Anastasi. As a result, AVT is now focusing on strategic investments in growth areas while immediately making necessary workforce reductions and realignment in areas with less opportunity.

The Company will hold a conference call to further discuss these matters on Thursday, March 15, 2001 at 1:45 p.m. PST. It will be available to the public via live web cast at www.avtc.com.

About AVT Corp.

AVT Corp. is the leading provider of unified communications and mobile business solutions that provide the timely exchange of business information anytime, anywhere from virtually any communications device, helping organizations manage their communications workflow.

The company specializes in developing and marketing its CallXpress unified messaging solution, its RightFAX fax and communications servers, and its MediaLinq electronic document delivery services. AVT has more than 65,000 systems installed worldwide, with 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies using the company's award winning products and services.

AVT is headquartered in Kirkland and has main offices in Tucson, Ariz.; Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; and Owings Mills, Md. In addition, AVT has sales and support offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Tokyo. Founded in 1982, AVT is publicly traded under the symbol "AVTC" on the Nasdaq National Market. AVT maintains a site on the World Wide Web at www.avtc.com.

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all passages containing verbs such as "aims," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "projects" or "targets" or nouns corresponding to such verbs. Forward-looking statements also include any other passages that are primarily relevant to expected future events or that can only be evaluated by events that will occur in the future. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of the management at the time the statements are made and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect AVT's actual results include, among others, the potential failure to maintain and expand AVT's network of dealers and resellers or to establish and maintain strategic relationships, inability to integrate recent and future acquisitions, inability to develop new products or product enhancements on a timely basis, inability to protect our proprietary rights or to operate without infringing the patents and proprietary rights of others, and quarterly and seasonal fluctuations in operating results. More information about factors that potentially could affect AVT's financial results is included in AVT's Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2000 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements that speak only as to the date of this release. Except as required by law, AVT undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking or other statements in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.