Arrow Electronics Successfully Completes Integration of Wyle Electronics.

Business & High Tech Editors

MELVILLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 27, 2000

Industry's Largest Systems Integration To Date

Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:ARW) announced that it has successfully completed the systems conversion and physical integration of Wyle Electronics, marking the largest and most rapid complex conversion that the electronics distribution industry has ever seen.

"Today, we are ready to serve all of our customers in North America through our industry-leading IT platform, our five state-of-the-art primary distribution centers, and our network of value added processing facilities," said Francis M. Scricco, President and Chief Executive Officer of Arrow. In accordance with the company's prior statements, combining Wyle Components and Wyle Systems into Arrow should yield savings in excess of $80 million annually.

"We began working on the integration of Wyle only 16 weeks ago, and our ability to completely merge a $2+ billion company in this short time frame is a tribute to the remarkable skill, tenacity, and energy of the over 450 Arrow and Wyle employees who have been working day and night since the merger announcement in early August. While most of us were at home with our families this Thanksgiving weekend, our real estate team was relocating 85 facilities, and 1,100 employees. Even more impressive is that our MIS conversion team was converting and integrating four separate Wyle computer systems to Arrow's MIS platform, including 222,000 Wyle inventory records, 75,000 open customer orders, 24,089 open purchase orders, nearly 50,000 design-win registrations, and 154,000 customer records, plus the data and 4-commerce activities of Wyle's Internet Website. All of us at Arrow and Wyle are indebted to these employees and I would like to thank them personally for their tireless efforts and the sacrifice of their Thanksgiving holiday, which have resulted in a seamless integration that is truly transparent to our customers and suppliers," added Mr. Scricco.

"Over the past weeks, all of Wyle's sales personnel have been trained to utilize the Arrow MIS system through our training website, which averaged over 50,000 hits per day, and over 6,000 computer based training modules were completed so that Wyle personnel were ready to fully respond to normal customer inquiries and orders at 7 AM this morning," said Alan Napier, Arrow's Vice President of Applications Development and overall manager of the operational conversion. "Additionally, post conversion on-site field support has been established at over 50 locations to ensure that the transition runs smoothly," added Mr. Napier.

With the completion of the Wyle integration, and the addition last month of the former Merisel MOCA division -- which specializes in the sale of Sun Microsystem servers and workstations -- Arrow's sales will be running at a pro-forma rate of almost $16 billion per year by the end of the year.

Arrow Electronics is the world's largest distributor of electronic components and computer products, with 1999 sales of $9.3 billion. Headquartered in Melville, New York, Arrow serves as a supply channel partner for more than 600 suppliers and 175,000 original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, and commercial customers through more than 225 sales facilities and 19 distribution centers in 38 countries. Detailed information about Arrow's operations can be found at www.arrow.com.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or facts to differ materially from such statements for a variety of reasons including, but are not limited to: industry conditions, changes in product supply, pricing, and customer demand, competition, other vagaries in the computer and electronic components markets, changes in relationships with key suppliers and the other risks described from time to time in the company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K). Shareholders and other readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements.