ChatCom names James B. Mariner President CEO.

CHATSWORTH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 1996--ChatCom, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHAT) is pleased to annouce the selection of James B. Mariner as its new president and chief executive officer.

He succeeds Gerald R. Sayer, who will continue to serve on ChatCom's Board and Executive Committee.

Mariner brings to the company over 35 years of acquired expertise, in both the computer and electronics industries with both large corporations and emerging high technology companies such as ChatCom. This combination of leadership experience will be an important driving force to enable ChatCom to expand its penetration of the company's Fortune 500 Universe.

Mariner has extensive management experience with advanced automation, communications and large scale multi-tiered networked systems. He was president and CEO of Digital Datacom, which he later sold to Honeywell Inc. for five times revenues. Subsequently he was subsidiary president as well as vice president/general manager for Honeywell, Inc.'s Large Computer and Manufacturing Systems Group, Mariner later became president of Sidereal Corporation, the telecommunications subsidiary of Trans Technology Corp. Previously, he served as Director of International Marketing for Control Data Corp.'s military Systems Group.

Most recently, Mariner was president of TMC, a consulting group, specializing in turn-arounds for technology companies.

ChatCom's chairman of the board, Richard F. Gordon, Jr. expressed the Board's pleasure in the selection of Mariner, stating, "We are delighted that Mariner is joining the company. Mariner, together with our newly appointed Board members will provide the management skills and background for positioning ChatCom, Inc. as a major force in the Network Systems Industry. We are looking forward to a long and profitable relationship."

Mariner stated, "The ChatCom products and technology, coupled with its ongoing development program is a superb platform from which to launch the company's bid as a major player in the communications, applications and web server markets. This is a seasoned and innovative employee group and I am looking ahead to an exciting and successful future with them."

ChatCom Inc. manufactures remote access communications and application servers and gateways for Local Area, LANs and Wide Area, WAN, Networks. The company was a pioneer in remote access technology, the most famous product being the ChatterBox(TM) family of communication servers.

CONTACT: ChatCom Inc.

Gerald Sayer, 818/709-1778

or

Strategic Growth International Inc., New York

Richard Cooper/Stanley Altschuler, 516/829-7111