Geoff Morris, Founding President and CEO, to Leave X/Open Company; Will Continue as Consultant to The Open Group.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 1996--The Board of Directors of X/Open Company Ltd. has announced today that Geoff Morris, founding president and CEO of X/Open, has resigned in pursuit of new business ventures. Mr. Morris will be leaving the company at the end of March of this year, but will continue to be retained by X/Open Company and The Open Group as a consultant to the organization.

"The members of the Board of Directors and staff wish to extend their appreciation and sincere thanks to Mr. Morris for his contribution to the success of the X/Open Company, and for his long and dedicated service," said Glenn Johnson, chairman of the board of X/Open Company Ltd. "His continuing leadership has been an essential factor in the creation of The Open Group, the combined organizations of X/Open Company and the Open Software Foundation.

"Generating over $100 billion of business annually, open systems have clearly become a commercial reality," Mr. Johnson continued. "Ninety-five percent of the world's systems vendors are now offering products that carry the X/Open brand guarantee. In 1995 alone, there were over $5 billion of procurements that require the X/Open brand as a guarantee of openness. Geoff Morris has been instrumental in driving this phenomena through to the success it has achieved today."

As a result of the strong end-user demand for open systems, X/Open Company and the Open Software Foundation, the two largest open systems companies, are consolidating their organizations to create The Open Group. The consolidation of these companies is designed to improve time to market and vendor responsiveness to customer requirements. X/Open Company has established its requirements process as a critical source of information on what is necessary to meet the future needs of open systems users. The X/Open consensus process that persuades suppliers to adopt common user defined standards, is well-proven. Adherence to these standards, backed by the X/Open brand guarantee, dramatically improves interoperability between competing brands of computer product offerings. The OSF common technology process that has produced open technologies such as Motif and DCE makes both companies ideal partners to expand the open systems market even further.

"When X/Open was founded in 1984, the leading-edge users responded with open arms, but the majority of the market was skeptical," said Geoff Morris. "Over the years, X/Open has acted as a catalyst and has succeeded in convincing the majority of the market that open systems provide the information systems buyer with the economic values of improving both price/performance and return on investment. The result has been a seismic market shift from proprietary systems to open systems -- a market where every supplier supports openness, and where the X/Open brand provides that guarantee of openness."

Morris continued, "I am very proud to have played a role in this massive market shift which has benefited countless IT user organizations. This unique success is a credit to the commitment of the X/Open partnership -- the Corporate members and Council members comprised of Independent Software Vendors, System Vendors and Government and Commercial Users, and the dedicated staff of the X/Open Company. All partners have committed time and expertise to make open systems a reality by defining the standards that they need to deliver an open world of information. I'd personally like to thank those visionaries in the press and market place who recognized in the early eighties that the open systems movement could, and would, deliver real value to users world wide."

In recognition of the opportunity and growth potential offered today by the technologies of the Internet and world wide web, Geoff Morris will be applying his leadership expertise to this new growth market. Specifically, Geoff Morris' new venture will address the increasing demand for Electronic Commerce. -0-

Note to Editors: Founded in 1984, X/Open is dedicated to the identification, agreement and wide-scale adoption of information technology standards that reduce incompatibility and help users realize the business benefits of open information systems. The X/Open brand mark is recognized by developers and users worldwide as the guarantee of compliance to open systems standards.

X/Open is also responsible for the management of the UNIX trade mark on behalf of the industry. X/Open is a registered trade mark, and the "X" device is a trade mark of X/Open Company Ltd. UNIX is a registered trade mark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd.

CONTACT: X/Open Company Ltd.

Nancy J. Smith, 415/323-7992, Ext. 238

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X/Open Web Site: www.xopen.org

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Fleishman Hillard, Inc.

Marilyn Kilcrease, 415/356-1031

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