Clarity Partners – Communications, Media and Business Services Private Equity Investors

OpNext Names Harry L. Bosco, Former Lucent Technologies Group
President of Optical Networking, to Head Newly Appointed Executive Management Team

Harry L. Bosco, a Special Venture Partner of Clarity Partners, L.P., and former Lucent Technologies Group President of Optical Networking, named President and CEO,
Dr. Minoru Maeda appointed COO, former General Manager of Fiberoptics Division, Hitachi, Ltd.
Chris Lin, appointed Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing, former Lucent China Chief Operating Officer
OpNext will be headquartered in Monmouth County, New Jersey

January 18, 2001
Monmouth County, New Jersey
Tokyo, Japan

OpNext, Inc., Hitachi Ltd.'s (NYSE: HIT) Fiber Optic Components Business Unit spin-off, announced today that its Board of Directors named Harry L. Bosco as President and Chief Executive Officer. The company's Board of Director's also named industry veterans Dr. Minoru Maeda as Chief Operating Officer, and Chris Lin as Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing.

"We are extremely excited to have Harry as OpNext's leader. Harry's keen insight and vision of the direction of communications technology, coupled with the company's state of the art product line of laser diodes, transmitters and receivers, will position us very competitively moving forward" said Mr. Masaaki Hayashi, Chairman of OpNext and President and Chief Executive Officer of Hitachi's Telecommunication & Information Infrastructure Systems Group. "His strong expertise and compelling track record solidified Lucent's position as an industry innovator. Under Harry's leadership, our customers, the network system providers, will be given the best, customized next generation optical equipment that will meet their future needs. Harry's twenty-year relationship with Hitachi as a customer of its components business will be integral to his direct role as CEO in facilitating OpNext's plans for progress and development."

"This team has unparalleled operational experience. We are fortunate to utilize the specialized expertise of Harry, a Clarity Special Venture Partner, to lead OpNext, one of our portfolio companies," said Dr. David Lee, Co-Chairman of OpNext, Managing General Partner of Clarity Partners, and co-founder and former President and Chief Operating Officer of Global Crossing Ltd. "Harry is establishing a successful management team which will create a leading, global optical component company."

Mr. Bosco recently joined Los Angeles-based private equity firm Clarity Partners, L.P. as a Special Venture Partner. Prior to joining Clarity, Mr. Bosco was Group President of Optical Networking at Lucent Technologies. Prior to that, Mr. Bosco held the ranks of Consumer Products Chief Technical Officer, Wired Technology and Initial Production Center Vice President, President of the Network Systems Broadband Networking Unit, Chief Operating Officer for the Optical Networking Group, and Chief Technical Officer of Service Provider Networks at Lucent Technologies. During his distinguished 35 year tenure, Bosco led the development of Lucent's core data networking architecture, helped develop the company's broadband networking strategy, and deployed Lucent's optical networking product portfolio.

"Hitachi has a heritage of leadership in semiconductors and optical lasers with a proven history of reliability and customer satisfaction," said Mr. Bosco. " Now, with OpNext, we are at the cutting-edge of technology for next generation networks and the OpNext team is devoted to a business strategy of continued leadership and long-term growth. The creation of OpNext is the best way to expand the already existing product line, and most importantly, to strengthen the continuity of our customer base by responding to their future demands and needs in the marketplace. We are confident that OpNext will be one of the global leaders in the optical components industry."

Dr. Maeda will focus on the overall operations of OpNext. Dr. Maeda joined Hitachi's Central Research Laboratories (CRL) in 1967, engaging in the development of microwave and millimeter-wave communications, and in 1975, he initiated the R&D of fiberoptic transmission technologies at CRL. In 1981, Dr. Maeda was appointed Group Leader of the Fiberoptic Transmission Group of CRL and he led the SDH system product development for the Hitachi Telecom Division and the fiberopitc component development for Hitachi's Fiberoptics Division and Hitachi Cable Ltd. Since then, Dr. Maeda was appointed head of the Optoelectronics Laboratory in 1988, General Manager of Fiberoptics Division of Hitachi Ltd. in 1993, and upon the combining of the Fiberoptics Division and the Telecommunications Division in 1995, Dr. Maeda was appointed Vice President/General Manager of Fiberoptic System and Component Business of Telecom. Division.

"I am very pleased to be working with Dr. Maeda, who is well known and highly regarded in the technical community and within our customer base," said Mr. Bosco. "Dr. Maeda has a unique background that makes him a valuable COO. He knows Hitachi's telecommunications business extremely well and he shares a similar belief that our goal is to provide our customers, the network system providers, the best possible technology to meet the explosive demand in the marketplace."

Chris Lin will assume responsibility for all sales and marketing operations for OpNext. Formerly Lucent Technologies' China Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Lin was responsible for the overall Lucent China Business Unit's daily operations, including sales and marketing, business management, business development, technical support, project management and implementation, and Joint Venture management. Prior to that position, Mr. Lin was the Vice President of Wireless Networks Group responsible for the overall wireless business in China. His primary focus was on sales and marketing for Lucent GSM and CDMA products. Before his Wireless Networks Group assignment, Mr. Lin was the Managing Director of Lucent Optical Networks Group for the China Region. Before joining Lucent, Mr. Lin held Product Development and Product Marketing positions at Siemens Telecommunication Systems Limited (Taiwan) and System Engineering position at Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies).

"Chris has over 15 years of experience in the selling of products and services to the communications industry and understands the needs of the customer base that OpNext will be addressing. We are pleased to have Chris join our senior leadership team," said Mr. Bosco. "He has the expertise to help us develop our sales and marketing engine quickly."

OpNext will be headquartered in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The Company is leasing a 15,000 square foot facility that will house most of the global corporate functions as well as a state-of-the-art research and development laboratory.

OpNext will have operating divisions based both in Tokyo and the U.S. The Company will expand upon Hitachi's already well-established product line, which includes laser diode modules, transmitters and receivers for up to OC-192/STM-64s. Currently, OpNext's customers include most of the world's major telecommunications and data communications and industrial equipment manufacturers.

OpNext, Inc.
OpNext Inc. (www.opnext.com), headquartered in Monmouth County, New Jersey, is one of the world's leading designers and manufacturers of optical components for the data and telecommunications industries. OpNext's current products include state of the art laser diodes, transmitters and receivers for networks operating at speeds up to OC-192/STM-64. OpNext Japan, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OpNext, Inc., based in Yokohama City, takes over Hitachi's optical component development and manufacturing teams. It will aggressively enhance development powers to meet future demands by developing cutting-edge technologies, utilizing existing Hitachi's superior technologies and also collaborating with Hitachi's world-leading R&D laboratories.

Hitachi Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (www.hitachi.co.jp), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1999 (ended March 31, 2000) consolidated sales of 8,001 billion yen (US$75.5 billion). Hitachi Ltd. manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. Since 1980, Hitachi has led the industry in developing and mass-producing fiber optic devices such as 2.5Gbps opto-electronic modules and 10Gbps opto-electronic modules.

Clarity Partners
Clarity Partners (www.claritypartners.net), a private equity investment firm based in Los Angeles, California, invests in communications, emerging media and related technology companies. The firm's partners have extensive experience in successfully creating, investing in, and managing and financing companies at all stages of development. Clarity Partners brings together investment professionals who were involved in three of the most successful transactions in the communications industry in the last decade, Global Crossing, WebTV Networks, Inc. and Univision Communications, Inc. In addition to OpNext, recent investments include MetroPCS, an independent U.S. PCS provider in major metropolitan markets covering 20 million POPs; Comstellar Technologies, a company established to develop a group of independent communications infrastructure companies that will drive the next generation of communications; and OpenReach, Inc., a network service that enables companies to create secure office-to-office connections through the Internet.

Contacts:
Harry Bosco
OpNext, Inc.
(ph) 732-544-3080

Tomoki Hirano
Hitachi Ltd.
Business Planning Dept, Telecommunication & Information Infrastructure Systems
(ph) 81-3-5471-8985
tomoki_hirano@cm.tcd.hitachi.co.jp

Terry Kubo
Hitachi America Ltd.
Corporate Communications Group
(ph) 650-244-7902
tatsuya.kubo@hal.hitachi.com

Dr. David Lee
Clarity Partners
Managing General Partner
(ph) 310-432-0100
opnext@claritypartners.net

J. Kathleen Zagala
Burson-Marsteller
Clarity Partners U.S. Representative
(ph) 310-226-3047
kathy_zagala@lax.bm.com

» back to all Clarity press releases