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Consumers Defer Back to School Shopping in Favor of Purchases for the Home, IBM Reports

Social Channel Sales Up Nearly 70 Percent for Students Seeking Early Back to School Deals; Mobile Commerce Rises Again

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Armonk, N.Y. - 18 Sep 2012: While U.S. consumers shopped this July and August, they were not buying clothes and notebooks for their children but rather items for the home. According to findings from IBM (NYSE: IBM), the biggest retail gains this back to school shopping season came from home goods purchases which increased 30 percent in July and more than 25 percent in August over their respective months in 2012.

While experts speculate that consumers were holding off on back to school purchases to eye the choices of their peers, social networks appeared to drive purchases with social sales increasing 69.7 percent. The social influence was especially apparent when it came to apparel, where shoppers referred to online stores through social networks generated a 2.2 percent of all sales in August, an increase of more than 113 percent over 2011. 

Mobile commerce also continued to grow with sales increasing 15.7 percent in July and 15.4 percent in August. For home goods mobile sales reached a high of 20.1 percent. 

The growing influence of both mobile and social media further validates the need for a Smarter Commerce approach that helps retailers attain, understand, and act – in real-time – on deep insights about their customers in order to meet the unique needs of each. 

“Back-to-school season is proving to be a trigger event that spans across categories beyond just notebooks and backpacks. Retailers that are cashing in are those who understand how this trigger drives sales for home furnishings, as well as for apparel, and can target their inventory levels and promotions accordingly,” said Jill Puleri, Global Retail Leader, IBM. “This year's winners were the companies that successfully connected consumers with the right products, at the right price, and through the right medium–whether in a store, a mobile device or through popular social media channels." 

"When I speak to executives at the leading companies, one of the discussions that continues to come up most frequently is around harnessing big data and their efforts to try and understand how to take all the noise and word of mouth that is being generated and make sense of it," added W. "RP" Raghupathi, Professor of Information Systems, School of Business, at Fordham University. "Today, with so many consumers shopping and sharing their opinions online, we are seeing more and more retailers tap into the power of sophisticated analytics technology to help them react faster to evolving trends and customer needs." 

Part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, the IBM Benchmark is the only analytics-based, peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results from the web sites of more than 500 leading U.S. retailers. 

The IBM benchmark reveals the following back to school trends that are critical to chief marketing officers (CMO), e-commerce leaders and customer service professionals: 

·   July and August Online Sales: Overall sales for July increased more than 11 percent over July 2011 while August slowed with sales up 3.9 percent compared to last year.

·   Social commerce: In July, shopper referrals to retailer sites from social networks generated 1.6 percent of all sales, an increase of 25.1 percent over last year. This trend continued in August reaching 1.8 percent, an increase of 69.7 percent over the previous year.

·   Mobile commerce: Mobile commerce remains strong with sales from mobile devices reaching 15.7 percent in July and 15.4 percent over the month of August. 

As for vertical industries the following categories experienced success over this timeframe: 

·   Home goods: In July online sales grew by just over 30 percent and 25.5 percent in August with consumers shifting some back to school purchases toward the home. Over this period mobile sales also thrived, reaching 19.1 percent in July and topping out at 20.1 percent in August.

·   Department stores: Online sales grew 22.1 percent in July and 28.7 percent in August. Over this period mobile sales were strong, hitting 19.2 percent in July and 18.9 percent in August.

·   Apparel stores: Online sales were up 9.2 percent in July and 9.8 percent in August. Over this period mobile sales reached 15.1 percent and 16.4 percent in August. Apparel stores also experienced strong social commerce with shoppers referred to their sites from social networks generating 1.4 percent of all sales in July and 2.2 percent in August, up more than 113 percent over 2011, more than any other industry.

·   Office Supplies/Electronics: Online sales grew by 6.3 percent in July while dropping by .92 percent in August. Mobile sales reached 5.7 percent in July remained steady in August a 5.9 percent. 

Part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, the IBM Benchmark provides intelligence on how consumers are responding to the products and services being offered to them. With these insights CMOs and teams gain deeper insight into each customer which they can use to present personalized recommendations, promotions and other sales incentives across the wide variety of channels—including social networks and mobile devices. 

More information on Smarter Commerce can be found atwww.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_commerce/overview/. 

Brocade Delivers Comprehensive Fabric Networking Support for Windows Server 2012

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Brocade Delivers Comprehensive Fabric Networking Support for Windows Server 2012

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Brocade and Microsoft Collaboration Enables SAN and IP Networking Solutions to Support Private Cloud, Server and Network Virtualization

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 4, 2012) - Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) today announced support for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Server 2012 server operating system across all product lines, including the company's Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) and Ethernet fabric solutions. Together with Windows Server 2012, Brocade^® networks simplify operations and management for highly virtualized cloud data centers, which serve as the infrastructure for enterprises and service providers in supporting their key data center initiatives such as scale-out server virtualization, private cloud deployments and software-defined networking (SDN).

To ensure compatibility and enable new networking functionality with Windows Server 2012, Brocade has implemented enhancements across its SAN and Ethernet fabric switching and adapter products that help enable new features such as:

• Virtual Fibre Channel: Simplifies and enables direct access to ultra-reliable, high-performance Fibre Channel SAN storage by multiple-guest virtual machine (VM) partitions in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V environments. This enables distributed workload clustering and dynamic live migration of high-availability applications such as Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server across VMs without impacting workflows or requiring SAN reconfiguration.
• Dynamic Circuit Network (DCN): Enables Quality of Service (QoS) configuration from a Data Center Bridging (DCB) network. This allows users to initiate ad-hoc dedicated allocation of network bandwidth for high-demand, real-time applications and network services. DCN support has been added to the Brocade adapter family, with DCB enabled in all products.
• Network Virtualization Using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE): As a component of Brocade's network virtualization strategy, the company is reaffirming its commitment to provide future support for NVGRE in Brocade Ethernet fabric switches. NVGRE is the Microsoft-recommended virtualization mechanism for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Network Virtualization deployments.

These new capabilities offer enterprise IT and cloud providers new storage and networking options that help ensure non-stop operations, increase business agility and optimize application performance. Brocade also now supports interoperability and integration with Microsoft System Center 2012. By working closely with the System Center team to test and build integrations, organizations can easily manage any Brocade network as part of a complete Windows-based cloud environment.

"Windows Server 2012 was built from the cloud up and introduces innovations such as software-defined networking and NVGRE for network virtualization and isolation to help enable cloud deployments," said Mike Schutz, general manager, Windows Server Marketing, Microsoft. "From the early design stages of Windows Server 2012, Microsoft worked closely with Brocade to give customers new networking technologies such as software-defined networking via NVGRE and virtual Fibre Channel for more dynamic connectivity to storage resources."

Introduced today, Windows Server 2012 is a highly dynamic, available and cost-effective server platform that enables organizations to deploy private or hybrid clouds in a flexible IT environment that adapts to changing business needs. New and enhanced features provide high performance and scalability to enable a truly multitenant infrastructure where networking, compute, and storage resources are completely isolated between tenants on the same host. For hosting providers, Windows Server 2012 includes the ability to isolate tenants, gain insight into infrastructure resource usage, and provide new services to help create additional revenue streams. It also offers tools to help customers make the transition from on-premises to hosted environments, while continuing to provide the services and reliability demanded by enterprise, mid-market, and small businesses.

"To support next-generation cloud environments, many new networking technologies require support in the operating system to help organizations realize the full benefit of highly virtualized IT architectures," said Jason Nolet, vice president, Data Center Networking Group, at Brocade. "By working closely with the Microsoft engineering team in the early stages of the new OS's development, we have ensured that Brocade Ethernet and Fibre Channel fabric solutions work seamlessly with Windows Server 2012 as well as deliver innovative new networking functionality for highly virtualized, cloud-based data centers."

More Information

Video: Brocade Vice President Jason Nolet, Data Center and Enterprise Networking discusses Brocade's collaboration with Microsoft to help ensure the OS and network together can deliver important new networking functionality in the virtualized cloud-based data center.

Video: Mike Schutz, GM, Windows Server Marketing, explains why Microsoft chose to work with Brocade as a development partner for Windows Server 2012, including work in the areas of SDN and virtual fibre channel.

About Brocade

Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) networking solutions help the world's leading organizations transition smoothly to a world where applications and information reside anywhere. (www.brocade.com)

Extreme Networks Promotes Carlos Perea To Vice President Of Sales For Latin America

August 31, 2012

Extreme Networks Promotes Carlos Perea To Vice President Of Sales For Latin America

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR) today announced that it has promoted Carlos Perea to the position of Vice President of Sales for Latin America (LATAM).  Perea, a twelve year veteran of the company with 23 years of industry experience, has sales and channel responsibility for the region.

Over the recently completed fiscal year for the company (FY'12), Perea led the Latin America region to impressive revenue growth highlighted by a 39% increase year-over-year in Brazil. Perea has also cultivated a strong base of channel and distribution partners in the region with customer wins in education, telecom service providers, and banking.

"Carlos has achieved measurable growth in Latin America and typifies the blend of leadership, depth of knowledge and trusted practices that lead to success," said Oscar Rodriguez, president and CEO of Extreme Networks.

"I am looking forward to success as we further build Latin America channels, customer references and local sales and support teams," said Perea.  "Customer opportunities stemming from the cloud, mobility and data center trends in the Latin America markets give us the momentum for continued growth."

About Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks is a technology leader in high-performance Ethernet switching for cloud, data center and mobile networks.  Based in Santa Clara, CA, Extreme Networks has more than 6,000 customers in more than 50 countries.  For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.extremenetworks.com.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including without limitation statements as to poetential growth  and  sales performance are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to risks and uncertainties, including network design and actual results of use of the product in different environments. We undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking information in this release. Other important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are contained in the Company's 10-Qs and 10-Ks which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (http://www.sec.gov).

Extreme Networks is either a registered trademark or trademark of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

SOURCE Extreme Networks, Inc.

News Provided by Acquire Media

Taiwan's Largest Grid Researcher Selects Extreme Networks High Density Switches For Its High Performance Computing Needs

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August 30, 2012

Taiwan's Largest Grid Researcher Selects Extreme Networks High Density Switches For Its High Performance Computing Needs

Academica Sinica powers breakthrough research in HPC environment

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR) today announced that Taiwan's preeminent education institution, Academia Sinica, has selected its scalable data center switches as part of a network upgrade to support the demands of its high performance computing (HPC) and cloud network.

Academia Sinica selected Extreme Networks versatile and highly dense switches to gain a robust and reliable 10 Gigabit network that is capable of continuously transferring huge volumes of data in continuous periods and would ultimately scale to 100 Gigabit Ethernet.

Extreme Networks supports global leading universities and research institutions such as the Wellcome Sanger Trust Institute, Johns Hopkins University and CEA Saclay.  At Academica Sinica, a team of physicists within the Academia Sinica Grids (ASG) research area are analyzing the particles created in collisions within the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator. To support the LHC as part of a worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) project, as well as other research initiatives, ASGC implemented more than 2,500 blade servers in its computer facility.

"We were already using Extreme Networks technology, but when we evaluated vendors' switching gear capable of expanding the network to accommodate HPC architecture, we sought great price-performance backed by fast delivery. Extreme Networks offering ticked all the boxes, and we had experienced excellent service from them in the past," said Wen-Shui Chen, network manager for ASG. "The BlackDiamond® is a great fit for large and dense networks."

ASG is Extreme Networks largest blade server customer in Taiwan, with 52 racks in 135m^2. With more than 5.4petabytes of storage capacity including disk and tape, it also represents one of Taiwan's largest data centers. ASGC is using Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 8900 series fabric switches, comprising a BlackDiamond 8810 chassis fully loaded with BlackDiamond 8900 module cards.

"Scientific and research facilities such as Academia Sinica need to be able to analyze immense amounts of real-time data from myriad sources in order to make real-time decisions. Having a flexible, high-performance core network and data center is critical to HPC applications," said Huy Nguyen, director of product management for Extreme Networks. "An Ethernet-based HPC interconnect like Extreme Networks offers data-intensive organizations a significant advantage due to its cost-effectiveness, ubiquity and open standards."

About Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks is a technology leader in high-performance Ethernet switching for cloud, data center and mobile networks.  Based in Santa Clara, CA, Extreme Networks has more than 6,000 customers in more than 50 countries.  For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.extremenetworks.com.

Extreme Networks, the Extreme Networks logo and BlackDiamond are either trademarks or  registered trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are the property of their respective owners.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including without limitation statements as to performance, timing and features of the Extreme Networks products, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to risks and uncertainties, including network design and actual results of use of the product in different environments. We undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking information in this release. Other important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are contained in the Company's 10-Qs and 10-Ks which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Extreme Networks, Inc.

Emulex Executives to Present at September Investor Conferences

Press release:

* * * MEDIA ALERT/ WEBCAST ADVISORY * * *

Emulex Executives to Present at September Investor Conferences

COSTA MESA, Calif., August 29, 2012 – Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX) today announced that it will present to investors attending the following investor conferences:

Conference: Citi Technology Conference
Date/Time: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. Pacific time
Presenting: Emulex Chief Executive Officer, Jim McCluney and Emulex Chief Financial Officer, Mike Rockenbach

Conference: Deutsche Bank Technology Conference
Date/Time: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 5:20 p.m. Pacific time
Presenting: Emulex Chief Financial Officer, Mike Rockenbach

Conference: Think Equity Growth Conference 
Date/Time: Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 7:00 a.m. Pacific time
Presenting: Emulex President and Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Benck and Emulex Chief Financial Officer, Mike Rockenbach

The presentations can be heard and viewed live on the Internet via a webcast here. The archived version of Emulex’s presentation will be available for seven days following the conference in the audio archive section of the Company’s website.

To learn more about Emulex, please visit: www.emulex.com

Follow Emulex on Twitter

About Emulex

Emulex, the leader in converged networking solutions, provides enterprise-class connectivity for servers, networks and storage devices within the data center. The Company's product portfolio of Fibre Channel host bus adapters, network interface cards, converged network adapters, controllers, embedded bridges and switches, and connectivity management software are proven, tested and trusted by the world's largest and most demanding IT environments. Emulex solutions are used and offered by the industry's leading server and storage OEMs including, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, Huawei, IBM, NEC, NetApp and Oracle. Emulex is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. More information about Emulex (NYSE:ELX) is available at www.Emulex.com.

Brocade ADX Series to Unveil VXLAN Gateway and Application Delivery Services

Press release:

Brocade ADX Series to Unveil VXLAN Gateway and Application Delivery Services

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Brocade Advances Software-Defined Networking and Enables Scalable Virtual Networking Services

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Aug 27, 2012) - VMworld -- Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) today announced significant progress in its software-defined networking (SDN) vision, strategy and innovation roadmap by unveiling the Brocade^® ADX^®Series application delivery switches, capable of delivering highly scalable VXLAN (Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network) gateway services for virtualized cloud networks developed in partnership with VMware.

Using the Brocade ADX VXLAN gateway solution, Brocade and VMware customers can virtualize their networks at enterprise and service provider scale, and with hardware-based performance, using VXLAN. Customers can use the Brocade ADX switches to connect VXLAN environments to the traditional Internet as well as run applications that span VXLAN and existing non-VXLAN networks. This enables organizations to use their current infrastructure while leveraging the benefits of VXLAN to support multitenancy and large-scale deployment of applications and virtual machines (VMs).

Network virtualization is a core element of Brocade's SDN vision, and VXLAN enables cloud service providers to build virtual networks on top of their existing infrastructure. VXLAN is a network virtualization technology that addresses the emerging challenges in the cloud data center. VXLAN enables multitenancy, scale for large numbers of applications and flexible provisioning with minimal interruption of infrastructure services. By leveraging Ethernet technology, VXLAN enables large numbers of virtual domains to be created above existing networks.

The Brocade ADX switch VXLAN gateway offers benefits such as:

• Efficient network and compute utilization while retaining access to traditionally connected resources;
• Scalable and secure multitenant network virtualization across large Layer 3 networking domains;
• More flexible VM placement and mobility, reducing operational and management complexities and cost;
• Delivery of load balancing services across both physical and virtual resources, combining physical servers and VXLAN-connected virtual machines at any location in the data center.

Brocade will demonstrate this VXLAN gateway capability in the Brocade booth (#901) at VMWorld® 2012 this week.

"As a leader in data center networking innovation, Brocade recognizes the need to bridge emerging technologies such as VXLAN with existing data center investments. By working closely with VMware, and leveraging the Brocade ADX application delivery switch, we are excited to be demonstrating VXLAN gateway functionality. This innovation will be essential to enabling real-world deployments of VXLAN and other overlay networking technologies," said Jason Nolet, vice president of data center networking, Brocade.

"Networking is a key resource of today's software-defined data center and its integration and alignment with other virtualized services is important. We are pleased Brocade is demonstrating the Brocade VXLAN gateway, which will enable customers to use VXLAN's scalability with applications and databases running in non-VXLAN networks," said Allwyn Sequeira, CTO & vice president, Networking and Security, VMware.

Brocade networking capabilities are integrated with VMware vCenter™ Server today via Brocade Network Advisor, giving vCenter users clear management visibility to Brocade storage network products. In addition, the Brocade ADX switch and Brocade Application Resource Broker integrate with VMware vCenter Server to elastically scale up and down workload resources in response to real-time end-user application experience.

Brocade at VMworld 2012Brocade is a leading network provider whose solutions are utilized by the world's leading enterprises and service providers. Brocade is a trusted data center partner in 90 percent of the Fortune 1000 data centers due to the company's focus on helping customers optimize their use of their existing data center infrastructure while providing a smooth transition to the cloud.

Brocade sessions at VMworld 2012 will focus on the latest requirements and options for building an optimized data center for cloud computing.

• Demonstrations at the booth (#901)
  • Cloud-optimized networking with Brocade and VXLAN
  • Large-scale virtual end-user computing across data centers
  • Disaster avoidance for critical applications

Spotlight Session:

• Building the Next-Generation Data Center for the Cloud
  • Date: Wednesday, August 29
  • Time: 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
  • Location: Moscone South, Lower Level: Gateway 104

This session will focus on how to combine best practices with new options for building next-generation data centers, including Ethernet fabrics, network virtualization with VXLAN and other innovations in software-defined networking. #BRCDVMworld

Breakout Sessions:

• Deploying Large-Scale Virtual End-User Computing Across Data Centers
  • Date: Monday, August 27
  • Time: 12:30-1:30 p.m.
  • Location: Moscone South, Level 3, Room 307

This session examines a proven reference architecture consisting of EUC/VDI deployment across multiple data centers with end-to-end network flow monitoring and VMware SRM to provide business continuity. #BRCDVMworld

• Disaster Avoidance for SAP-Critical Applications
  • Date: Wednesday, August 29
  • Time: 9:30-10:10 a.m.
  • Moscone West, Level 2, Room 2002

This session will describe a solution that increases the availability of SAP applications by eliminating single points of failure at all layers in the environment. #BRCDVMworld

Sessions will be led by Brocade speakers Chip Copper, Ph.D. Global Solutions Architect, and Jonathan Hudson, Global Solutions Architect.

San Francisco Moscone Convention Center, Booth #901 and selected room locations as indicated for speaker sessions.

• Register here: www.vmworld.com/community/conference/us
  
• Follow the conversation at #BRCDVMworld and #VMworld.

Press release:

IBM to Acquire Kenexa To Bolster Social Business Initiatives

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ARMONK, N.Y. - 27 Aug 2012:  IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Kenexa Corporation (NYSE: KNXA) today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Kenexa, a publicly held company headquartered in Wayne, Pa., in a cash transaction at a price of $46 per share, or at a net price of approximately $1.3 billion.

The acquisition bolsters IBM's leadership in helping clients embrace social business capabilities while gaining actionable insights from the enormous streams of information generated from social networks every day.

Kenexa, a leading provider of recruiting and talent management solutions, brings a unique combination of Cloud-based technology and consulting services that integrates both people and processes, providing solutions to engage a smarter, more effective workforce across their most critical business functions.

Kenexa complements IBM's strategy of bringing relevant data and expertise into the hands of business leaders within every functional department, from sales and marketing to product development and human resources. As a result of this synergy, clients will be able to attract and develop the right skills to build the right teams, for the right projects, the first time.

The adoption of social business technology is supporting the growth of big data and the need for analytics in the enterprise. A recent global IBM study revealed that 57 percent of CEOs identified social business as a top priority and more than 73 percent are making significant investments to draw insights into available data.

The survey also reveals that 70 percent cite human capital as the single biggest contributor to sustained economic value. The combined strengths of IBM and Kenexa are key differentiators at a time when organizations of all sizes are looking to increase workforce efficiencies and gain more insight from their business information.  

Social media has pervaded the lives of consumers, helping them connect with each other in new ways. However, a shift is occurring in the enterprise as business leaders look for ways to generate real value through the use of social technologies to evolve their front-line business operations. According to Forrester Research, the market opportunity for social enterprise apps is expected to grow at a rate of 61 percent through 2016.*

"Every company, across every business operation, is looking to tap into the power of social networking to transform the way they work, collaborate and out innovate their competitors," said Alistair Rennie, general manager, social business, IBM. "IBM is uniquely positioned to help clients generate real returns from their social business investments, while helping them gain intelligence into the data being generated in these networks to be more competitive in their markets."

"The customer is the big winner in all this because the combination of our two organizations will deliver more business outcomes than ever before," said Rudy Karsan, chief executive officer, Kenexa. "Together, Kenexa and IBM will be unmatched in the industry, offering solutions that extend from strategy to the technology platform to the delivery of services for clients."

Today, Kenexa supports more than 8,900 customers across a variety of industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail and consumer, including more than half of the Fortune 500.

With Kenexa's world-class front-office process solutions, IBM will be able to offer strategic consulting, a social technology platform, and expertise on a global scale to help clients enable a smarter workforce and gain a competitive advantage in any market. By creating a smarter workforce, employees can resolve problems before they arise to improve customer service, drive innovation to bring products and services to market faster, and increase sales by building new skills -- linking the right experts to the right clients.

The Kenexa acquisition will complement IBM's social business and HR business servicesleadership. More than 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies have licensed IBM's solutions for social business. Through its combination of social software, analytics, content management, and deep industry expertise, IBM is uniquely positioned to help organizations capture information, create insights and generate interactions that translate into real business value.

With operations in 21 countries worldwide, Kenexa has approximately 2,800 employees. Consistent with its strategy, IBM plans to continue to support Kenexa clients and enhance Kenexa technologies while allowing these organizations to take advantage of the broader IBM portfolio.

IBM expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter of 2012, subject to Kenexa shareholder and regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

About IBM
For more information visit www.ibm.com.

*Source: Social Enterprise Apps Redefine Collaboration," Forrester Research, Inc., November 30, 2011.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this communication regarding the proposed transaction between IBM and Kenexa, the expected timetable for completing the transaction, benefits and synergies of the transaction, future opportunities for the combined company and products and any other statements regarding IBM and Kenexa's future expectations, beliefs, goals, or prospects constitute forward-looking statements made within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and (collectively, forward-looking statements). Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including statements containing the words "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates" and similar expressions) should also be considered forward-looking statements. A number of important factors could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including the parties' ability to consummate the transaction; the conditions to the completion of the transaction, including the receipt of shareholder approval, court approval or the regulatory approvals required for the transaction may not be obtained on the terms expected or on the anticipated schedule; the parties' ability to meet expectations regarding the timing, completion and accounting and tax treatments of the transaction; the possibility that the parties may be unable to achieve expected synergies and operating efficiencies in the arrangement within the expected time-frames or at all and to successfully integrate Kenexa's operations into those of IBM; such integration may be more difficult, time-consuming or costly than expected; operating costs, customer loss and business disruption (including, without limitation, difficulties in maintaining relationships with employees, customers, clients or suppliers) may be greater than expected following the transaction; the retention of certain key employees of Kenexa may be difficult; IBM and Kenexa are subject to intense competition and increased competition is expected in the future; fluctuations in foreign currencies could result in transaction losses and increased expenses; the volatility of the international marketplace; and the other factors described in IBM's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011 and in its most recent quarterly report filed with the SEC, and Kenexa's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011 and in its most recent quarterly report filed with the SEC. IBM and Kenexa assume no obligation to update the information in this communication, except as otherwise required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

This communication may be deemed to be solicitation material in respect of the proposed acquisition of Kenexa by IBM. In connection with the proposed acquisition, Kenexa intends to file relevant materials with the SEC, including Kenexa's proxy statement in preliminary and definitive form. SHAREHOLDERS OF KENEXA ARE URGED TO READ ALL RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC, INCLUDING KENEXA'S DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT, BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain the documents free of charge at the SEC's web site, http://www.sec.gov. Documents will also be available for free from Kenexa by contacting Kenexa Investor Relations at (866) 888-8121 or Kenexa IR InvestorRelations@kenexa.com. Such documents are not currently available.

Participants in Solicitation

IBM and its directors and executive officers, and Kenexa and its directors and executive officers, may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the holders of Kenexa common shares in respect of the proposed transaction. Information about the directors and executive officers of IBM is set forth in the proxy statement for IBM's 2012 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on March 12, 2012. Information about the directors and executive officers of Kenexa is set forth in the proxy statement for Kenexa's 2012 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which was filed with the SEC on April 3, 2012. Investors may obtain additional information regarding the interest of such participants by reading the definitive proxy statement regarding the acquisition when it becomes available.

F5 to Integrate with VMware Infrastructure to Enhance Customers' Cloud Evironments

Press release:

COMBINED SOLUTION WILL LEVERAGE THE NEW VMWARE READY™ FOR NETWORKING AND SECURITY PROGRAM TO AUTOMATE AND ORCHESTRATE KEY APPLICATION DELIVERY NETWORKING SERVICES

SAN FRANCISCO, August 27, 2012

F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced its intent to integrate its BIG-IP^® products using the new VMware Ready^™ for Networking and Security Program. A jointly developed solution will help organizations seamlessly integrate services and efficiently support software defined data centers. Through the new VMware program and tight integration between F5 and VMware, customers will be able to continue utilizing their existing investments in networking and security products while realizing the efficiency and agility benefits of VMware cloud infrastructure with a validated joint solution.

Today’s announcement coincides with the VMworld 2012 conference, taking place August 26–30 in San Francisco. Today at 2:30 p.m. PT at the event, F5 will host a technical session demonstrating the jointly developed solution. The session is entitled “Solving the Application Provisioning Nightmare: Integrating vSphere and vCloud Director with your Application Delivery Networking Services.”

“F5’s approach to managing application delivery in the enterprise extends well beyond its own management solutions,” said Jim Ritchings, VP of Business Development at F5. “Through dedicated integration efforts, F5 technologies can augment the capabilities of VMware vSphere^® and VMwarevCloud^® Director, enabling IT professionals to efficiently deploy and optimize application delivery services across virtualized and cloud environments.”

DETAILS

As organizations pursue increasingly agile IT deployment models, VMware and F5 seek to provide technologies that make software defined data centers a reality. A key element of this vision is the ability to seamlessly integrate application services into data center operations, while simultaneously reducing management complexity and operations costs. To enable integration with other leading vendors, VMware has developed the VMware Ready for Networking and Security Program. As a launch partner, F5 is collaborating with VMware to enable the integration of F5’s suite of Application Delivery Controller (ADC) services with VMware vCloud^® and vSphere^® infrastructure solutions. This integration will take advantage of all the services available with the F5^® BIG-IP product family, including load balancing, SSL offloading, web acceleration, web application firewall, and more. The combined solution will give customers a more powerful way to provision, manage, and orchestrate application delivery services alongside virtualized application workloads throughout their IT infrastructures.

F5 BIG-IP solutions can implement application-specific policies to govern application security, performance, and availability. A joint solution is equally valuable to cloud environments using vCloud Director, as well as non-cloud virtual environments built on vSphere. It can also be implemented with vSphere using either physical BIG-IP devices or BIG-IP virtual editions. The solution also leverages BIG-IP iApps^™, a feature that simplifies the configuration of ADC service policies, to ensure simple and rapid deployment for optimized services in the VMware Ready model.

In deploying VMware and F5 solutions together, customers can:

•  Automate Processes for Simplified Application Provisioning

A combined solution enables IT to reach new levels of operational efficiency by significantly reducing the need to perform repetitive tasks, which also minimizes the opportunity for errors due to manual intervention. It creates a model where IT can produce pre-approved ADC service policies and application owners can self-service those policies for their applications. In this way, organizations can greatly reduce the amount of man hours necessary to deploy and support ADC services for new or expanded applications. This enables much quicker IT responsiveness, greater IT agility, and lower operating costs.

• Uphold Compliance and Security Mandates

With F5 solutions, IT teams can direct and control how application traffic is handled by pre-configuring policies based on security requirements, business goals, and other priorities. This approach enables better enforcement of industry regulations and corporate policies, even as applications and user access variables change over time.

• Efficiently Deploy and Scale IT Resources

F5 and VMware enable organizations to seamlessly connect cloud resources to existing on-premises data centers to scale application services and support additional capacity as needed. In configuring data center operations, IT can provide improved application response time for users and monitor capacity utilization to efficiently adjust to fluctuating resource demands. By effortlessly scaling resources across the entire infrastructure, organizations can avoid paying for unneeded resources, freeing up IT funds for other important initiatives.

SUPPORTING QUOTES

“Collaboration with F5 on the new VMware Ready^™ program is a natural extension of the companies’ ongoing technology partnership,” said Parag Patel, Vice President, Global Strategic Alliances at VMware. “F5 provides powerful application services that our customers can use to optimally build, deliver, and monitor their applications. This future integration will ensure that customers can leverage the full complement of F5’s services for their applications. Using VMware and F5 solutions together helps organizations simplify and automate service provisioning so that systems can be easily maintained in a rapid, repeatable, and consistent manner.”

“Getting the performance you want from your applications in a virtualized environment often comes with the tradeoff of added complexity,” said Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst at ZK Research. “Technology partnerships like the one between F5 and VMware help customers overcome these complexities, and help organizations manage applications in a virtual environment within a simple, efficient, and secure framework.”

ABOUT F5 NETWORKS

F5 Networks, Inc., the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), helps the world’s largest enterprises and service providers realize the full value of virtualization, cloud computing, and on-demand IT. F5^® solutions help integrate disparate technologies to provide greater control of the infrastructure, improve application delivery and data management, and give users seamless, secure, and accelerated access to applications from their corporate desktops and smart devices. An open architectural framework enables F5 customers to apply business policies at “strategic points of control” across the IT infrastructure and into the public cloud. F5 products give customers the agility they need to align IT with changing business conditions, deploy scalable solutions on demand, and manage mobile access to data and services. Enterprises, service and cloud providers, and leading online companies worldwide rely on F5 to optimize their IT investments and drive business forward. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

You can also follow @f5networks on Twitter or visit us on Facebook for more information about F5, its partners, and technology. For a complete listing of F5 community sites, please visitwww.f5.com/news-press-events/web-media/community.html.

F5, BIG-IP, and iApps are trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. VMware, VMware vCloud, VMware Ready, and vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

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