Adastra to invest EUR 4.4 million in SuSE Linux

SuSE: “SuSE Linux… announced that the venture capital company AdAstra Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Munich, Germany, [will] invest EUR 4.4 million in SuSE Linux AG.”

From:	 "Rupert Warwick" <RWARWICK@fphcom.com>
To:	 pressinfo@fphcom.com
Subject: ADASTRA INVESTS EURO 4.4 MILLION IN SUSE LINUX
Date:	 Wed, 27 Feb 2002 14:50:56 +0000

ADASTRA INVESTS EURO 4.4 MILLION IN SUSE LINUX

Investors Regard SuSE Linux as a Well-Established Company and Worthy
Investment

Nuremberg, Germany - SuSE Linux, the international Open Source technology
leader and solution provider, announced that the venture capital company
AdAstra Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Munich, Germany, invests EUR 4.4
million in SuSE Linux AG.

SuSE is the leading provider of complete solutions based on Linux, the Open
Source operating system. Large enterprises benefit from SuSE's deep project
knowledge in terms of design and implementation of individual IT structures.
For the IT infrastructure of small and medium-scale enterprises, SuSE offers
cost-efficient, easy-to-administer standard solutions such as the SuSE Linux
eMail 

Server and SuSE Linux Firewall.
Private customers appreciate the multiple-award winner SuSE Linux due to its
ease of use and the variety of applications it comprises. SuSE's
comprehensive range of products and services is based on the unique know-how
of the world's largest development team for Open Source solutions.

Solid Basis for Long-Term Profitability and Ongoing Growth
During the past months, SuSE Linux AG restructured its internal organization
into four target-group-oriented Business Units, which handle the various
customer segments according to their specific needs. "In the IT world, SuSE
Linux AG is renowned for its highly innovative products and services. With
the new organisational structure, SuSE has established an optimum base for
handling the various requirements of the individual customer segments, thus
being able to participate over proportionately in the rapidly growing Linux
market," commented Hans-Christian Perle, Ph.D.,
AdAstra, on the investment decision.

"The new management exceeded our expectations. Despite a generally difficult
environment, SuSE Linux AG was able to increase its total turnover by about
50% to EUR 40 million during last year. The former technology start-up SuSE
successfully transformed into a reliable and auspicious enterprise," added
Tillmann Lauk, Ph.D., CEO of the lead investor, e-millennium 1.

e-millennium 1 incorporates investors such as Deutsche Bank, SAP, Accenture,
and other renowned international enterprises. "The new investor structure
enables SuSE Linux AG to fully exploit its potential. We are fully convinced
that SuSE and Linux are looking towards a bright future, especially in the
server and enterprise computing sectors. Additionally, SuSE has made a name
as an innovative technology provider. Partners such as IBM, Intel, Compaq,
and AMD rely on the engineering feats of the SuSE developers," said Amnon
Harman, responsible Investment Manager at e-millennium 1.

"Today's investment underscores the leading position of SuSE in the
international Linux market," said Johannes Nussbickel, CFO of SuSE Linux AG.
"In addition, it shows that decision makers in global enterprises regard
Linux as a well-established economic factor."

About AdAstra
AdAstra Erste Beteiligungs GmbH, Munich, Germany, is a privately held venture
capital company with commitments amounting to EUR 100 million. The company's
investment focus is on technology-oriented, fast growing companies in the IT,
telecommunications, media, life sciences, and high-tech sectors. The
Munich-based HypoVereinsbank AG is AdAstra's lead investor.

About SuSE:
SuSE Linux AG is the international technology leader and solutions provider
in Open Source operating system (OS) software.  SuSE´s unique expertise in
Linux and their largest development team worldwide dedicated to Open Source
software has contributed to the recognition of SuSE as a leader in Linux
solutions. SuSE offers the largest support database to the public, and owns
the largest hardware database in the Linux market. Furthermore, SuSE supports
more hardware platforms than any other commercially available Linux
distribution.

Designed for Web and enterprise server environments and efficient as a home
and office platform, SuSE's distribution, surrounding features, effective
configuration and intelligent design result in the most complete Linux
solution available today.

SuSE Linux AG, headquartered in Germany, and SuSE Linux Ltd., based in
Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, UK are privately held companies focused entirely
on supporting the Linux community and Open Source development. With a
workforce of over 500 people worldwide, SuSE has offices all over Europe,
Latin America and in the US.

SuSE contributes considerably to Linux development projects such as the Linux
kernel, glibc, XFree86TM, KDE, ISDN4Linux, ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound
Architecture) and USB (Universal Serial Bus).

Additional information about SuSE can be found at http://www.suse.co.uk
For more information please contact:
Rupert Warwick 
T: 020 7436 4336 F: 202 7436 4224 E: rwarwick@fphcom.com 

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