SALIRA OPTICAL NETWORK SYSTEMS, INC. SECURES $17 MILLION IN SERIES B FUNDING LED BY SOFTBANK VENTURE CAPITAL

Investment accelerates delivery of new 'Ethernet Simple, Fiber Fast' access systems.

San Jose, CA August 20, 2001
Salira Optical Network Systems, Inc., the first company to provide carrier-class, IP/Ethernet systems for broadband access, today announced the closing of $17 million in Series B funding. Softbank Venture Capital (SBVC) led the round; Series A lead investor Vertex Management and top-notch Pacific Rim venture capital firm WI Harper also participated in the round. The completion of this second round of funding brings the total investment in Salira to $23.9 million.

"Softbank's investment in Salira represents a strategic interest in both the company's breakthrough access systems and the deep experience of its management team," said Gary Rieschel, president and executive managing director of SBVC. "Many companies have touted ambitious plans to solve the access bottleneck, but we believe Salira's IP/Ethernet-based systems will overcome the problems inhibiting wide deployment of broadband services."

Salira is developing systems that combine the simplicity of Ethernet with the power of optics to provide the first carrier-class, IP/Ethernet optical solution for high-speed broadband access. By setting new standards for performance, scalability and flexibility, the Salira systems address the need for carriers to provide affordable, high-speed broadband access. The recently announced company is led by a world-class team experienced in optical, data and telephony systems that has fundamentally shaped the development of the Internet.

"We believe this investment is a ringing endorsement of our strategy, especially given the difficult state of the capital markets and the uncertain economic climate," added Herbert J. Martin, CEO of Salira. "This funding puts us in a position to deliver products that will enable carriers to provision traditional services like T1, DS3 and DSL more easily, while adding the ability to deliver enhanced services like remote provisioning and dynamic bandwidth allocation."

Salira will use the funding to continue its product development strategy. The company expects to be in customer trials with carriers and enterprise customers early next year.

As a result of this new round of funding, Salira will add a new member to its Board of Directors. Gary Rieschel of SBVC will join a board which consists of current directors Dave House, CEO of Allegro Networks, Gwong-Yih Lee, senior director at Cisco, and K.T. Wan, vice president of Vertex Management. Herbert J. Martin, Salira's CEO, and Wei Gao, Salira's CTO and founder also serve on the board.

About SBVC

SBVC works with the best entrepreneurs to create the most powerful companies of the Internet economy. SBVC has $2.5 billion under its management, over 150 leading Internet companies in its portfolio, and an unparalleled investment team of former CEOs and entrepreneurs, technology pioneers, senior executives from major technology corporations, and leaders from the investment banking community. Companies in its portfolio include Art Technology Group, E*TRADE, Interliant, iPrint.com, Net2Phone, PeoplePC, Preview Systems, Support.com and TeraBeam Networks. For more information, visit www.sbvc.com.

About Vertex Management

Vertex Management Inc. is the venture capital arm of Singapore Technologies Group with over $500 million (US) under management. Vertex has been actively investing in private, high technology companies in the United States, Europe and Asia since 1988. It is headquartered in Singapore and has offices in the U.S., London, Taiwan and Israel.

About WI Harper

With offices in San Francisco, Hong Kong, Beijing and Taipei, WI Harper manages five venture funds which have over US$200 million under management. WI Harper focuses particularly on investment opportunities in the high technology sector in the greater China region and Silicon Valley. As of January, 2001, WI Harper has invested in over ninety companies covering a diversified range of sectors including broadband infrastructure, wireless applications, e-commerce, digital media, telecommunications, and biotechnology.

About Salira Optical Network Systems, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Salira builds broadband systems that are used to deliver advanced voice, video and data services to business and residential customers. Salira’s systems give carriers the ability to offer traditional TDM services and advanced IP-based broadband services in one integrated, cost-effective system. Salira Shanghai, Ltd., a subsidiary of Salira, performs manufacturing, R&D and customer support functions, and has responsibility for marketing and sales in the Asia Pacific region.