Cisco Systems Donates $50,000 To Help Hurricane Fran Victims In North Carolina; RTP company challenges others to help.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 1996-- Cisco Systems, Inc. is donating $50,000 to the Food Bank of North Carolina to directly assist North Carolina victims of Hurricane Fran, it was announced today by Cliff Meltzer, vice president and general manager InterWorks Business Unit, Cisco Systems.

A check is being presented immediately to help cover operational expenses for local and regional disaster relief.

"Hurricane Fran has left many of our fellow North Carolinians without the means necessary to sustain the basic necessities of life," said Meltzer. "In the spirit of neighbor helping neighbor, we want to make sure the corporate community of North Carolina does what it can to help out. With this $50,000 donation, we challenge other companies to donate to the Food Bank and other organizations helping North Carolina disaster victims."

"This contribution and challenge by Cisco Systems could not come at a more critical time," said Greg Kirkpatrick, executive director of the Food Bank of North Carolina. "Hurricane Fran has caused devastation to many of the 34 counties served by the Food Bank, which is now coordinating delivery of food and relief supplies from all over the United States." The Food Bank of North Carolina is a member of Second Harvest, the national food bank network.

Together with the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, FEMA, Adventist Community Services and the North Carolina Interfaith Disaster response committee, Second Harvest is directing all donations to the Food Bank's warehouse for distribution to agencies and people throughout the affected counties.

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO) is the leading global supplier of internetworking solutions for corporate intranets and the global Internet. The company's Research Triangle Park (RTP) facility is its eastern U.S. headquarters. The mission of the RTP facility is both to provide headquarters for the InterWorks Business Unit and to house other engineering, customer support and sales functions serving the entire company.

The RTP-based business unit was formed to address the integration of existing SNA-based (Systems Network Architecture) computer networks with non-SNA local- and wide-area networks. Cisco's current North Carolina workforce is approximately 500 people, with growth plans to meet its projections of nearly 1,000 workers at the RTP facility. The company has completed two buildings on its North Carolina campus and has initiated construction on a third.

Cisco's products -- including routers, LAN and WAN switches, dial-up access servers and network management software -- are integrated by Cisco IOS(tm) software to link geographically dispersed LANs, WANs and IBM networks. Company news and product/service information are available at World Wide Web site http://www.cisco.com. Cisco is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. -0-

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CONTACT: Cisco Systems, Inc.

Nick Francis, 919/472-2971