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RELEASED APRIL 15, 1996 For more information contact Jean-Louis Gassée,
jlg@be.com Direct financial inquiries
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BE INC. COMPLETES $14 MILLION FINANCING MENLO PARK, Calif (April 15, 1996) - Be, Inc., the company founded by Jean-Louis Gassée, announced today that it has completed a private round of financing in excess of $14 million. Several leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms, including August Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Alta Partners are leading the financing. "This gives us the resources we need to respond to the demand we're already experiencing from the marketplace," stated Mr. Gassée, Be's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Strong, sophisticated investors supporting our business will help us achieve our potential in emerging application segments, such as digital audio, digital video, the Worldwide Web, and image processing, where the BeBox(tm) shows performance and capabilities out of the reach of older platforms." Late last year, Be demonstrated a new personal computer system, called the BeBox, that can simultaneously handle multiple audio sources (including digital audio, analog audio, and MIDI), multiple video sources, and communication with multiple Internet web sites - while at the same time handling personal computer capabilities such as file and database management, 3-D computation, and other functions. The company demonstrated these capabilities, which the company considers "entry-level," on a personal computer system priced squarely in the center of current mainstream personal computer price points. Be delivers this level of personal computing power by making use of multiple PowerPC microprocessors in each BeBox, and through use of the Be Operating System (Be OS(tm)) - a new multiprocessing, multi-threaded operating system ideal for media and communications intensive applications. The BeBox offers an exciting alternative to the current evolutionary approach to personal computing platforms, designed to meet the demands of sophisticated computer users and developers who are frustrated by the limitations of current PC architectures. Be, Inc. is now preparing to ship the BeBox system to customers. The recently completed financing provides the company with a solid financial foundation on which to launch its products. The company is ramping up production capability, and is establishing distribution in North America, in major countries in Europe, and in Japan and Australia in the Pacific. Be plans to use the proceeds from the financing to provide working capital to fund its growth and to continue its product development plans. Be makes extensive use of the Internet to communicate with its customers and developers, and has plans to expand this presence. As the company begins general product shipments in June, it will provide customers with on-line ordering and configuration capabilities for BeBox products, as well as support for its base of value-added resellers and other distributors. Be's worldwide web site can be found at http://www.be.com. "We believe that Be has an excellent chance of winning at the intersection of digital media and the Internet. Our goal is to provide a solid financial footing to complement the excellent technology foundation already in place," said David Marquardt, general partner at August Capital. "Because they have started anew, without the baggage of legacy code, we're likely to see Be add new functionality and increase performance at a rate faster than is possible with older operating systems." August Capital, NEA and Alta Partners are the lead investors in this financing, a round which also includes investments by AVI Capital and Stanford University. In addition, several previous Be investors are also participating in this round.
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Be, Inc. was founded by Jean-Louis Gassée in 1990 to overcome the limitations of existing computer architectures. With a team of industry-leading engineers and business executives in the United States and Europe, the company has positioned itself to become a key player in fast-growing application markets. Be, Inc. is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Corporate Offices: Be, Inc.
European Offices: Be, Inc. |
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