Together These Companies Spend Over $11 Billion in Research and Development Per Year

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. -- July 24, 2000 -- yet2.com,  the first global marketplace for the exchange of intellectual property on the Internet, announced today the additions of Bayer, Kansai Research Institute, Inc. (KRI), LG-Elite, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., NEC Corporation, Nippon Steel Corporation, NTT Advanced Technology Corporation (NTT-AT), Osaka Gas Co., Ltd., Pitney Bowes, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. and Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. as Founding Members. These companies will publish their innovative assets to the yet2.com cross-industry marketplace. yet2.com  will enable the new Founding Members to increase their return on technology assets by using the exchange to meet potential buyers and sellers they would not have been able to reach otherwise.

"yet2.com  provides Bayer a global platform for marketing our own know-how and for accessing new technologies to round out and expand our technology portfolio," explains Bayer Board Member Dr. Pol Bamelis, chairman of the board committee for research and development. "yet2.com  is a powerful marketing instrument for technologies that Bayer has developed but not exploited commercially."

"yet2.com  offers the most exciting B2B opportunity yet for technology managers," said Dr. Chang Soo Kim, president of LG-Elite. "LG especially is interested in realizing the value of intangible assets in the world of rapid technology evolution. There will be immediate impact from LG and yet2.com  working together to build the global Internet marketplace in technology exchange."

Spanning all industries and areas of research and development, yet2.com  is a community where technology officers, scientists and researchers can unearth cutting-edge discoveries as well as new applications for tried and true technologies. yet2.com  helps companies extract value from underutilized technologies by streamlining the traditionally lengthy and inefficient process of technology transfer.

"We look forward to publishing our technologies on yet2.com so companies all around the world can benefit from our achievements," said Masahide Yamashita, general manager, International Business Promotion Headquarters, NTT-AT. "In addition we expect to use yet2.com  to take advantage of other companies´ listings and enhance our current line of goods and services."

"Pitney Bowes has a vast portfolio of intellectual assets covering a range of technologies and business applications that are key in the New Economy such as ticketing, cellular telephones, shipping, laser printing, encryption and mailing," said Michael E. Melton, Head of Intellectual Property Assets for Pitney Bowes. "yet2.com  enables us to aggressively market our non-core intellectual property to companies in various industries around the world. As a member, we can leverage our technology assets to increase licensing revenues and develop new business opportunities."

"The diversity of these companies and the technologies they provide attests to the ability of yet2.com  to help any company, regardless of its industry, realize a greater gain on its intellectual assets," said Chris De Bleser, CEO of yet2.com.  "Our new Founding Members join many of the world´s leading companies in providing their technology on our exchange. These latest partnerships are further testament to the power of yet2.com´s  customer list and the services we offer to companies of all sizes throughout the world."

These twelve companies join the growing list of Founding Members on yet2.com´s  marketplace. The leading technology companies include 3M, Agfa-Gevaert Group, Arthur D. Little, Asahi Glass Company, BASF, Battelle, The Boeing Company, Bosch, British Telecommunications, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Denso Corporation, Dow Chemical, DuPont, EPRI, Ford Global Technologies, Fuji Photo Film Company, Honeywell, Kao Corporation, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Mitsui Chemicals, Monsanto, Royal Philips Electronics, Polaroid Corporation, Porsche, Procter & Gamble, Rockwell, SAIC, Sandia National Laboratories, Shell Global Solutions, Siemens, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Toray Industries, Toshiba Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, TRW and the University of Michigan.

About yet2.com
yet2.com  is the first cross-industry global marketplace for the exchange of technology on the Internet. The company has enlisted a growing core of leading corporations and government agencies to pledge technology assets from every field of research. yet2.com  is creating the most efficient method of streamlining research and development and extracting value from intellectual assets. With its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, yet2.com  has offices in Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.yet2.com.