Amber Networks Adds Former Ascend CEO Mory Ejabat to Board of Directors; CEO of Zhone Technologies Joins Optical Internet Firm's Board Following Record $91 Million Funding Round.

Business/High-Tech Editors

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 2000

Optical Internet start-up Amber Networks, the developer of a new class of carrier-grade service edge products known as Aggregation Service Routers, today announced the appointment of Mory Ejabat, chairman and CEO of Zhone Technologies Inc., to its board of directors and advisors. Ejabat is a telecommunications industry veteran with a wealth of experience in driving the rapid growth of pre- and post-IPO companies such as Ascend Communications, where he served as president and chief executive officer.

"Mory is phenomenally successful in leading rapidly growing companies," noted Sam Mathan, president and chief executive officer of Amber Networks. "When we served together as part of the executive team at Ascend, I had the pleasure of seeing his incredible talent for steering the company into becoming a multi-billion dollar market leader in ATM, frame relay and RAS markets. Amber is fortunate to be able to take advantage of his valuable industry insight -- and I personally look forward to working with him again."

Ejabat is founder, chairman and CEO of privately held Zhone Technologies and was instrumental in securing over $500 million in private placements for this pioneering developer of next-generation communication equipment for carriers and service providers. While Ejabat led Ascend Communications Inc., its annual sales grew from $40 million to $2.3 billion in just over five years. Ascend was purchased by Lucent Technologies in 1999 for $24 billion.

"I've been fortunate to receive many requests to join various company boards," commented Ejabat. "It is rare to find one as high caliber as Amber Networks. Amber has the vision, technology and management expertise that will allow the company to make a significant impact on the service provider industry. I personally know many members of this executive team, and I'm pleased to have the opportunity to work with them again to help achieve Amber's market vision."

In addition to Ejabat and Mathan, Amber Networks' board of directors and advisors includes co-founders Prakash Bhalerao (chairman) and Amar Gupta, Amber's chief technology officer; Sam H. Lee, general partner, Information Technology Ventures and managing director, Infinity Capital, LLC; Paraq Saxena, managing general partner, INVESCO Private Capital; and Peter Wagner, general partner at Accel Partners.

About Amber Networks

Founded in 1998, Amber Networks is "shaping the optical internetTM" by delivering the industry's most advanced carrier-class service edge networking systems. Amber's products enable network service providers to make IP the converged service protocol of choice for the Optical Internet, significantly boosting competitiveness and profitability. Products include the ASR2000(TM), the world's first Aggregation Service Router and edgeSpan(TM), an Internet-scale element and service management suite. The ASR2000 recently won the coveted SUPERQuest award at SUPERCOMM in June 2000 and was selected the product of the month by Telecommunications(R) Magazine in August 2000. Company headquarters are in Santa Clara, California. For more information, contact Diane Wilson at [phone] or visit the Amber Networks website at http://www.ambernetworks.com.

Amber Networks, ASR2000, edgeSpan and "shaping the optical internet" are trademarks of Amber Networks, Inc. One or more U.S. and foreign patents pending cover the product described above.