Norwest Venture Partners Promotes Matthew Howard to Partner; Howard Recognized for Leadership Role in Airespace, Spinnaker Networks and Webstacks.

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a leading technology venture capital firm focused on early stage investments, today announced the promotion of Matthew Howard to Partner. A Principal with NVP since 2000, Howard has leveraged his technology and business expertise to successfully identify, build and grow strategic investments in the firm's portfolio. In his new position as Partner, Howard will continue to focus on seed through mid stage investment opportunities in communication and storage systems, embedded systems, semiconductors and security.

"Matt has demonstrated his ability to identify strategic deals for our firm and lead them through closure, while at the same time, contributing significant value to our existing portfolio companies," said Promod Haque, Managing Partner, Norwest Venture Partners. "Matt's in-depth technical sales, channel and marketing experience has been invaluable to our portfolio company executives, and his recent successful exits in companies such as Airespace reinforce his ability to execute in a competitive market environment. We look forward to Matt's ongoing involvement and contributions at NVP."

Howard's most recent success includes Airespace, which was bought by Cisco Systems for $450 million last quarter. Howard also served on the board of Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance for $300 million) and Webstacks (acquired by Extreme Networks). Howard currently serves on the board of Omneon Video Networks, Reconnex, SkyStream Networks, Swan Labs and Summit Microelectronics. He was also a board observer with ZettaCom when it was acquired by IDT, and he previously served on the board of the Wireless Communications Alliance (WCA).

"Matt is one of the most responsive and hard working people with whom I've worked, and he was instrumental to the success of Airespace," said Brett Galloway, former President and CEO of Airespace. "Matt truly cares about his companies and he takes his job as an investor and board member very seriously. He is excellent at digging beneath the surface and finding every way possible to make his companies achieve competitive advantage. He added tremendous value to Airespace by making strategic introductions, recruiting key senior talent into the company and providing sound business advice."

"Matt added significant value to our business. He played a key role in helping us transform from a stealth-mode start-up into an externally focused sales and marketing driven company," said Ron Bianchini, former President and CEO of Spinnaker Networks. "Matt's involvement as an investor went far beyond attending board meetings. He provided us access to key customers and strong industry contacts in the storage field, and he was critical in helping us evaluate and execute significant business decisions. Matt continued to push us hard to reach our potential and we are extremely grateful for his support."

Howard brings more than 20 years of experience in marketing, product management, engineering, business development, and sales in a wide range of technologies to Norwest Venture Partners. Prior to joining the firm in 2000, Howard held a number of senior positions with Cisco's IOS organization and the Internet Business Unit. He established Cisco's security and VPN strategy, situated Cisco as the leading firewall appliance manufacturer, and launched the first load-balancing product. Previously, Howard was vice president of marketing at Vertical Communications, where he focused on voice over IP and launched the first MGCP enabled media gateway. In addition, Howard has held various positions at Digital Equipment Corporation, BDM International, and Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) Communications Corporation. He began his career as a cryptological analyst with the U.S. Naval Security Group.

About Norwest Venture Partners

Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build significant businesses for more than 44 years. NVP focuses on early stage investments in information technology including: semiconductor and components, systems, software, services and consumer/Internet technologies. The firm currently manages more than $1.8 billion in venture capital out of its office in Palo Alto, California, USA.

NVP has funded over 350 companies since inception. Recent NVP transactions include Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance) and Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola). NVP has also funded such market leaders as Actel Corporation, Brocade Communications, Cerent (acquired by Cisco Systems), Documentum, Extreme Networks, Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), PeopleSoft and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM). Additional information on Norwest Venture Partners is available at www.nvp.com.