kSARIA Expands Into Asia-Pacific Market.

Business/Technology Editors

First-To-Market Innovator Inks Agreement With

Daiichi Jitsugyo Co., Ltd. To Distribute Family of Fully Automated

Fiber-Optic Assembly Solutions

kSARIA Corp., the first-to-market leader in the field of fully automated fiber-optic assembly solutions, has signed an exclusive agreement with Daiichi Jitsugyo Co., Ltd. (DJK) to distribute its products throughout Japan, China, and Korea. Headquartered in Tokyo, DJK is the largest independent distributor of electronic assembly systems in Asia.

Under the terms of the agreement, DJK will immediately begin distributing the first two offerings in kSARIA's revolutionary family of modular in-line platforms designed to fully automate the assembly of optical components and modules. These include:

- Prima(R), kSARIA's first-to-market fiber pigtail fabrication system, which automatically processes fiber from the reel, including polarization maintaining fiber, into a pigtail ready for the next phase in the assembly process in 30 seconds - up to 20 times faster than today's conventional methods. Prima is currently in full production.

- Presta(R), kSARIA's first-to-market fiber prep and fusion splicing system, which automatically strips, cleans, cleaves, splices, recoats, and proof tests up to 20 fiber pairs, including specialty fiber, in a single pass at a rate of one minute per splice - up to 15 times faster than today's conventional methods. Full production is planned for the Presta in the first quarter of 2003.

DJK, a $700 million distribution company with over 450 employees throughout the Asia-Pacific region, will provide a full spectrum of sales and customer services for kSARIA including training, support, field service, spare parts, and custom engineering. In addition to its dedicated customer support center in Tokyo, the company has satellite service and spare parts facilities in Korea and China - all of which will be available to support kSARIA's Asia-Pacific customers.

"A strong presence in Asia is key to extending our first-to-market advantage throughout the global market," said Sebastian J. Sicari, kSARIA's President and CEO. "DJK is the ideal partner to help us achieve that goal. In addition to its wealth of capital equipment experience and operational infrastructure, DJK has well-established relationships in the Asia-Pacific fiber-optic market that can help us quickly penetrate the region."

The new distribution agreement with DJK opens up a major geographic market for kSARIA. The Asia-Pacific region is projected to represent 27% of the fiber-optic components market in 2003(1), with Japan, China, and Korea widely acknowledged as the region's major players. kSARIA already has sales and distribution capabilities throughout North America and in Europe.

"We are very excited about our agreement with kSARIA and the role we will play in introducing solutions with the potential to revolutionize the fiber-optic industry," said Seiji Uno, Managing Director of DJK. "By fully automating the assembly of fiber-optic modules and components, kSARIA's systems deliver never-before-possible increases in productivity and yield at lower unit costs coupled with improvements in process control and product quality. We believe that the eventual market recovery will release significant pent-up demand for such benefits and that we have the strengths to successfully meet that demand."

Based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, kSARIA is the only manufacturer of fully automated in-line standardized systems designed specifically for the fiber-optic components assembly processes. Additional information about kSARIA is available at the company's Web site: www.ksaria.com.

(1) Based on the April 2002 report published by leading telecom market research firm RHK.