Be, Inc Raises $25 Million During 1998 to Expand Engineering and Marketing Efforts.

RELEASED NOVEMBER 16, 1998

For more information contact:

Be, Inc.
Scott Paterson, scott@be.com
+1 (650) 462-4112

In Europe:
Jean Calmon, jcalmon@beeurope.com
+33 1 49 06 73 75

Be, Inc Raises $25 Million During 1998 to Expand Engineering and Marketing Efforts.
Backed by Venture Funding, Be Launches BeOS® Release 4

  MENLO PARK, Calif - November 16, 1998 - Be, Incorporated, providers of the Be Operating System (BeOS ®) which is optimized to handle the real time manipulation of high-bandwidth digital media on personal computers, has raised in excess of $25 million in 1998 to fund market expansion.

"This round of funding provides us with the financial and strategic resources to allow us to focus on bringing an end-user ready version of the BeOS to market," said Jean-Louis Gassée, chairman and chief executive officer of Be, Incorporated. "Our success with this round of funding indicates that there is room in the market for alternative operating systems that address very specific end-user needs. Just as Linux is the alternative OS for Internet and enterprise servers, the BeOS aims to do the same for audio and video creation and playback."

Be, Incorporated develops, markets, and supports a next-generation media operating system called the BeOS®. The BeOS is designed to handle the real-time manipulation of high-bandwidth digital media on personal computers. Last week, Be, Incorporated also announced its latest release, Release 4, which offers improved speed and added features, including a Japanese input method.

Investments were made by new and existing partners such as August Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Alta Partners, Associated Venture Investors Capital (AVI), and Intel Corporation.

The first commercial release of the BeOS was made in July 1997, followed by Release 2 in October. BeOS Release 3, made in March 1998, was the first version to support Intel® Pentium® II processor-based systems. Release 4, announced November 1998, will be made simultaneously for both Pentium and PowerPC-based systems.

About Be

Be, Inc., founded in 1990 by Jean-Louis Gassée, is a software company focusing on building new foundations for the next generation of digital content and media design tools. With a team of industry-leading engineers and business executives in the United States and Europe, the company is dedicated to removing the limitations of existing computer architectures and delivering a new level of price performance.

In July 1997, Be published the first public release of the Be Operating System (BeOS), the core product of this strategy. Additional information on Be and the BeOS is available online at http://www.be.com/. Be, Inc. is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.