The News

Esmertec acquires majority stake in eValley, Japan

06/04/2005

Highly experienced telecommunications expert, Naoki Iizuka, appointed as CEO of Esmertec Japan

Duebendorf-Zurich, Switzerland and Tokyo, Japan – April 6, 2005 – Esmertec™ (www.esmertec.com), a leading provider of software solutions for mobile phones and embedded devices, announced that it has taken majority stake in eValley Inc. (www.evalley.co.jp), a leading exponent for Java™ software development in Japan.

Esmertec has teamed up with eValley since July 2002 to develop J2ME™ (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition) technology for Japanese handset manufacturers and operators.  In February 2003, Esmertec took a minority stake in eValley with an option for controlling interest, which has been now exercised.

Esmertec is also pleased to announce that Mr. Naoki Iizuka has joined as CEO of Esmertec Japan.  Prior to Esmertec, Mr Iizuka built his career at NEC Corporation over the last 20 years where he held various sales and marketing positions.  In his last position at NEC, Mr. Iizuka was General Manager of the China Business Division, where he worked extensively on building up the operation base for developing the mobile business in China.

“The equity investment in eValley follows Esmertec’s strategy to have a strong technical and sales team effectively serving the local customers and partners in Japan,” said Jean-Claude Martinez, COO of Esmertec. “Japan has played a leading role in developing mobile and embedded software services, and it is important that Esmertec can contribute to this development.”

“I am pleased to have joined an industry leader like Esmertec,” said Naoki Iizuka, CEO, Esmertec Japan. “The majority stake in eValley and Esmertec’s strategic partnership with Mitsui Co. Ltd solidifies Esmertec’s position in Japan, and we look forward to continue delivering cutting-edge technology and quality services to Japanese customers.”

About eValley
eValley Inc. was established in April 2000 as the leading exponent for Java software development in Japan. eValley has great experience in the development of embedded Java core software, such as NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone Java profiles and in testing service for embedded Java for mobile phones. For more information, please visit www.eValley.co.jp.

About Esmertec
Esmertec is a leading provider of software solutions and technologies for mobile phones and embedded devices. Our high-performance solutions are delivered to chipset and embedded device manufacturers in mobile and landline telecommunication, home-multimedia, machine-to-machine, consumer electronics and industrial automation markets. Engineered for smallness, Esmertec's Java (J2ME) solutions, mobile applications and components, and object-oriented software platform (OSVM™) are designed to extract maximum performance from hardware environments with very limited computing, memory and energy resources. Founded in 1999, Esmertec is a global company headquartered in Zurich, with engineering, sales and customer support operations in Switzerland, France, Denmark, the UK, the USA, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Media contact:

Esmertec Japan
Midori Kikuchi
Phone +81 45 475 3920
midori.kikuchi@esmertec.com

Esmertec Headquarters
Leng Stricker
Phone +41 1 823 8900
lstricker@esmertec.com

Esmertec is a trademark of Esmertec AG
Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.