Avnet Inc. Launches Hall-Mark Global Solutions.

TEMPE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 1999--

Avnet Inc., with more than $5.9 billion in annual sales, Monday officially launched Hall-Mark Global Solutions, an emerging worldwide value-added distributor of enterprise computing products, software and services.

For several years, Avnet, parent company of Hall-Mark Computer Products, has been focusing on strategic acquisitions in the mid-range computing space. Most notable acquisitions include JBA Computer Services Division in North America and Bytech in the United Kingdom.

"Our expertise, our strategy, our vision and now the name is global," Roy Vallee, chief executive officer and chairman, Avnet Inc., said. "Hall-Mark Global Solutions is the synthesis of JBA Computer Services Division, Avnet/Bytech and Hall-Mark Computer Products.

"We are very excited about this evolution. Our vision is to provide the highest value relationships to our customers and suppliers on a global basis and this evolution of Hall-Mark is key to the Avnet Computer Marketing Group."

In addition, Hall-Mark Global Solutions has now expanded business operations in Austria, Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Switzerland as well as in the Asia/Pacific marketplace.

"With a new name and new logo to reflect our growing worldwide presence, Hall-Mark Global Solutions unites all of these enterprise operations to create a customer-oriented company with a dominant position in the worldwide value-added distribution marketplace," Andy Bryant, president of Hall-Mark Global Solutions, said.

"We have made a major investment in a worldwide strategy to secure this dominant position. Our goal is to enhance our position domestically and worldwide," he said, adding that further expansion in North America and Europe is currently in development.

Rick Hamada, most recently the executive vice president of Avnet Computer, takes the helm of Hall-Mark Global Solutions as executive vice president of sales and marketing for all North American operations. He will report to Bryant. Ken Moss, also reporting to Bryant will continue as vice president of Hall-Mark Global Solutions, Europe.

In an effort to more effectively serve its customer and strategic vendor relationships, Hall-Mark Global Solutions has realigned its sales organization to include five key business units -- Compaq, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Services and Software.

"Our value-added resellers' needs are changing and we are taking a pro-active approach to meeting their needs for the 21st century," Hamada said. "We understand the intricacies of running a value-added reseller's business, and we are committed to providing a high level of service and expertise with dedicated product focused units. We fully expect this level of highly focused support to result in accelerated VAR growth and increased customer satisfaction."

"Hall-Mark's business units will not be isolated, however, because they will continue to have access to the breadth of centralized resources in logistics, inside sales, marketing, financial and technical support.

"Our philosophy is that no single component of the channel can operate independently and be successful. Everyone wins when the manufacturer, distributor and reseller combine core strengths."

To strengthen its role, Hall-Mark Global Solutions has created these five separate business units to produce more focused expertise. Vendor and reseller needs are changing and Hall-Mark Global Solutions is taking a pro-active approach to meet these evolving needs.

The Hall-Mark Global Solutions Services business unit will extend the tradition of commitment to service. As an example, the division will focus on enhancing VAR partnerships with the delivery of implementation services -- the ability to deliver fully configured systems to the VAR's customer site on deadline -- installed, tested and users trained.

The Software business unit will provide a focused approach to support solution selling to VARs and Independent Software Vendors with expertise in e-commerce applications and Enterprise Resource Planning. The Software business unit will also support the hardware centric business units with continued emphasis on Oracle and Computer Associates.

"All of this is being done to create more focused expertise on a larger scale," Bryant said. "Today's announcement marks a milestone in Hall-Mark's history and we look forward to continued growth in support of the channel."

Headquartered in Tempe, Hall-Mark Global Solutions is a $1.4 billion industry-leading, value-added distributor of enterprise computing systems, software and services exclusively to the reseller channel. Hall-Mark Global Solutions is a business unit of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a Fortune 500 company.

For more information about Hall-Mark, visit its website at: www.hallmark.avnet.com.

To reporters and editors: for a complete press kit and new name and logo information, visit www.hallmark.avnet.com