Ericsson selects Marimba as partner in Internet technology expansion.

RICHARDSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 1997--Ericsson -- the worldwide leader in telecommunications -- and Marimba Inc. announced today that Ericsson will use Marimba's Castanet technology for delivering and managing software and content as Ericsson expands the Internet and Intranet-related products it offers to millions of customers worldwide.

Ericsson and Marimba have signed a strategic alliance agreement where they will jointly investigate the use of Castanet technology to differentiate and enhance Ericsson's family of products, which includes fixed and mobile networks, mobile phones and infocom systems.

Ericsson selected Castanet because it uniquely offered the combined efficient content and application delivery capabilities with the intelligent back-end management functionality necessary to create real world applications for customers. Over the past year, Ericsson has worked with Marimba to assess the commercial potential of tightly linking its product with Castanet.

"We are looking forward to continuing our relationship with Marimba, a leader in software content and delivery," said Bo Hedfors, president and chief executive officer, Ericsson Inc. "This agreement gives us the opportunity to explore in more depth ways we can provide new, value-added, advanced technology services through the use of Marimba's technology."

Since its introduction last fall, Castanet has rapidly emerged as the technology-of-choice for software and content distribution over corporate networks and the Internet. The system is comprised of the Castanet Tuner client and the Castanet Transmitter server. The Tuner enables end-users to subscribe to application channels deployed by various transmitters across the Internet or corporate networks.

Examples of types of channels enabled by Castanet include internal IS applications, multimedia entertainment, interactive games and productivity applications -- all updated in the background with minimal impact on network bandwidth. A real world example of the wide spread acceptance of Marimba's technology is Corel Systems' use of Castanet to distribute and update its full-featured application suite, Corel Office for Java.

"Ericsson's success with Castanet demonstrates the potential of using our technology beyond the Internet and integrating it into a commonly-used consumer device, such as a cellular phone," said Kim Polese, chief executive officer of Marimba. "We're delighted that Ericsson has selected Marimba as its technology partner as they initiate ways to expand their product offering, such as offering their cellular phone users the ability to receive personalized traffic report data via a Castanet channel. Castanet is the only product available today that offers Ericsson true intelligent application management and flexibility as well as the ability to scale to millions of users."

About Marimba

Marimba Inc. is a privately-held software company whose products enable developers to create, deploy and maintain robust network-managed applications and multimedia experiences within enterprises and across the Internet. The company was founded in February 1996 by four members of the original Java development team at Sun Microsystems, including Jonathan Payne, Kim Polese, Sami Shaio and Arthur van Hoff. Marimba received its initial round of venture funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

About Ericsson

Ericsson's 90,000 employees are active in more than 130 countries. Their combined expertise in fixed and mobile networks, mobile phones and infocom systems makes Ericsson the world-leading supplier in telecommunications.

CONTACT: Ericsson Inc.

Kathy Egan/Lars Jonsteg, 212/685-4030

or

Marimba Inc.

Beth Johnson, 415/463-0177

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