[Ericsson and Microsoft will form a joint company to market and deliver mobile e-mail solutions for network operators. Ericsson will own the majority share of the new company. ]

REDMOND, Wash. and STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Ericsson today announced a strategic partnership to develop end-to-end solutions for the wireless Internet, based on a shared vision of conveni ent and fast access to information any time, anywhere, from any device. Ericsson and Microsoft will form a joint company to market and deliver mobile e-mail solutions for network operators. Ericsson will own the majority share of the new company.

As part of the partnership -- the first between the two companies -- Ericsson will provide its Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) stack to Microsoft and will adopt Microsoft(R) Mobile Explorer for feature phones, giving operators, developers and consumers more choice and functionality in developing, delivering and accessing wireless information and serv ices.

The joint company will focus on building, marketing and deploying solutions that utilize the Microsoft Windows NT(R) Server and Exchange platforms, and Ericsson's infrastructure and mobile Internet technologies. This will give wireless operators access to the most reliable and feature-rich communications and mobile data infrastructure.

"The mobile Internet is part of Ericsson's vision of convenient and user-friendly information access and wireless e-mail," said Kurt Hellstrom, president of Ericsson. "Bringing t ogether Microsoft's strengths in Internet and enterprise messaging software and our leadership as an open communications solutions provider of mobile voice and data will offer tr emendous ease of use for consumers all over the world."

Microsoft and Ericsson also agreed to collaborate in their support of developing open industry standards -- including Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), Wireless Application Protoco l and Bluetooth -- enabling next-generation wireless solutions that work more seamlessly with local area networks and other electronics products.

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Ericsson will adopt Microsoft Mobile Explorer for feature phones on applicable Ericsson phones including Ericsson WAP stack. This new dual-mode microbrowser displays both HTML an d WAP 1.1-compliant content, thus eliminating the need for operators and developers to choose between technologies. Microsoft Mobile Explorer is a modular mobile phone platform f or enabling secure corporate data access, e-mail, Internet, location-based services and electronic commerce from feature phones and smart phones. Mobile professionals and consume rs benefit by being able to access information and services based on either standard. Network operators benefit from a standard approach that can lower costs while boosting custo mer loyalty by providing value-added services.

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