Massana Raises $16.5 Million in Second Round of Venture Financing

Funds to Drive Deployment of Gigabit Ethernet Product Line and Founders' Vision

October 23rd, 2000 - Dublin, Ireland and Palo Alto, California, -- Massana Inc., an innovator of "smart math in silicon" for broadband digital communications, announced today that it has secured $16.5 million in funding from a global venture capital syndicate led by the Private Equity arm of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, a leading investment bank. Massana will apply the second-round funding to deploy the company's Gigabit Ethernet products into the market. Additionally, the company will develop new solutions for emerging wired and wireless broadband communications markets based on Massana's core technologies.

"Massana has reached a critical point in evolving its technology ladder," said Paul Costigan, CEO of Massana. "We clearly can identify the path broadband digital communications will take and know the role our core competencies will play in that evolution. We will apply this new round to deploying our current products and developing new products that will achieve that vision."

Joining Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in the second round of financing are JAFCO Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan; as well as first-round supporters ACT Venture Capital of Dublin, Ireland; BancBoston Capital, Boston, Mass.; and Vision Capital, Menlo Park, Calif. These world-class venture capitalists previously have funded such notable high-tech start-up companies as Nortel Networks, SAQQARA Systems, Monterey Networks, Brocade Communications Systems, BCO Technologies and Kymata.

According to Costigan, Massana has gathered support from a global team of pre-eminent firms to participate in the deployment of its technology on a worldwide basis. "The success of our second-round financing underscores the strength of our technology and its adaptability for the broadband communications markets of the future," added Costigan.

"Massana's strong management team, its proven methodologies for implementing complex math in silicon, coupled with its achievements from the company's initial financing, made our decision to lead this round an easy one," said Andrew Cowley, Head of Technology/ Investment Strategy at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Private Equity. "The company's unique approach and past success will enable wired and wireless communications products to satisfy the exploding demand for Internet bandwidth. This deal adds to our impressive track record of investments in technology companies worldwide."

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Notes to Editors

About Massana
Massana is an innovator of "smart math in silicon" for broadband digital communications. Massana combines its proprietary methodologies and custom signal processing architectures to take complex mathematics to silicon. By applying this unique approach, Massana provides customers with a new level of broadband capability to meet the exploding demand for wired and wireless Internet bandwidth. Massana is a global technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif. with a research and development centre in Dublin, Ireland. For more information on Massana, visit www.massana.com.

Contacts:

Cian Mac Eochaidh / Paul Keary
Text 100 Public Relations
086 8593376 / 086 829 7120
Cianm@text100.ie / paulk@text100.ie
Ben O'Sullivan Massana
+353 (0)1 604 0158
Ben.osullivan@massana.com

Supplementary information about investors

About Dresdner Kleinwort Benson
Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (DrKB) is the investment banking division of Dresdner Bank AG employing more than 8,000 people in 36 offices worldwide. Our website is www.dresdnerkb.com.

DrKB's Private Equity business (www.drkbpe.com) has 3 billion euros in equity and mezzanine funds under direct and co-advisory management globally and ten investment teams making investments in medium sized LBO/MBO/MBI, emerging growth and VC stage transactions across Europe, America and Asia. Investments are made with the Bank's own capital and funds committed by third parties to investment vehicles sponsored or co-sponsored by Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.

About JAFCO
JAFCO Co., Ltd. (www.jafco.co.jp) - established jointly in 1973 as Japan Associated Finance Co., Ltd., by the Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., Nippon Life Insurance Co., and the Sanwa Bank, Ltd. - is the pioneering company in Japan's venture capital industry. The principal activities of the Company and its consolidated subsidiaries (collectively, JAFCO) are investing in and offering consulting and information services to private companies with high potential for future growth.

About ACT Venture Capital
ACT Venture Capital is Ireland's leading private equity company, providing venture and development capital funding. ACT's specialist technology team has extensive investment experience in the ICT sector. In December 1999, ACT closed fund-raising for it's latest fund, the 100 million Euro ACT '99 fund, which is backed by leading financial institutions from Ireland and the UK and mainland Europe. ACT Venture Capital's total funds under management are 200 million Euros.

About Vision Capital
Vision Capital is a $110M US based venture capital fund providing growth capital for leading technology companies, which are poised for rapid expansion into global markets. Vision invests in promising European and US technology companies and then takes an active, hands-on approach in expanding these businesses across the Atlantic. Typically, Vision helps its portfolio companies in building up their market presence, finding industrial and strategic partners, working with management to define growth strategies which includes the identification of acquisition candidates, and assisting in the building and expanding of sales and distribution channels. The Vision partners are all highly experienced professionals in both industry and venture investing, having collectively financed more than 150 companies prior to founding Vision Capital. Vision is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA and has a European office in Geneva, Switzerland.

About BancBoston
Capital BancBoston Capital is the private equity arm of Fleet Boston Financial Corporation (formerly BankBoston Corporation), the major US international banking group. BancBoston Capital's worldwide IT operation focuses on Internet, Software and Communications. The group has over 50 portfolio companies and has an affiliated network of 20 strategic IT venture partnerships.

Robertson Stephens, the Section 20 subsidiary of Fleet Boston, is a leading international investment bank focused on growth companies in the technology, life science and healthcare, information & business services, retail and consumer products, real estate, telecommunications, media, broadcasting, and gaming and lodging sectors