Marathon Technologies Secures $8.8 Million Investment

Venture Capital Firms Plan for Long-Term Relationship

HostReview.com
Thursday, January 29, 2004; 12:00 AM

Boxborough, Mass., USA (January 29, 2004) - Marathon Technologies Corporation, the only developer and supplier of fault- and disaster-tolerant solutions for industry standard Microsoft(r)
Windows(r) environments, announced today that it has secured a $8.8 million investment. Co-lead investors were venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Longworth Venture Partners. Presidio
Venture Partners, a Sumitomo Corporation company also participated in the investment. The investment will be used for sales, marketing, business development, and the ongoing development of the company's newly launched Endurance(r) Virtual FT(tm) server software product line. Based on Marathon's proven, patented technology, Endurance Virtual FTserver software is the industry's first simple, affordable way to protect standard Intel based servers from downtime due to faults, failures, and disasters. As part of the investment, Axel Bichara, Senior Principal of Atlas Venture, and Paul Margolis, Partner, Longworth Venture Partners, will join the Marathon Board of Directors.

"This investment, along with both our recent significant OEM agreement with Fujitsu, Ltd., and large distribution contract with Sumisho Electronics, are strong validation of our new product offering as well as our strategy of focusing on the fast-growing entry- to mid-level server market," said George C. Tranos, President and CEO, Marathon Technologies Corporation.

"We chose to invest in Marathon because it has the combination of proven technology, experienced management team, sound business model, and strong channel relationships that technology companies need to grow and be profitable in this economy," said Paul Margolis. "We see this investment as the beginning of a long and productive relationship with Marathon." "With the launch of its Endurance® Virtual FTserver™ software product and the company's transformation to a pure software business model, Marathon has opened a wide range of new opportunities in the business continuity computing market," said Axel Bichara. "We look forward to helping Marathon become the leader in this market."

"As the enterprise increasingly relies on Windows servers for their important business applications, its need for protection against the costs and consequences of server downtime also increases," said Donna Scott, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner. "Further, there is a need in the market for simpler, software-based availability solutions as traditional clustering solutions are quite complex and threaten the availability of the environment."

About Endurance Virtual FTserver
Endurance VirtualFTserver software unites two unmodified industry-standard servers into a single, fully redundant configuration that appears to applications, networks, OS, and system administrators as a single fault tolerant server. Endurance software keeps applications running nonstop by detecting, isolating, and operating continuously through failures and disasters with no failover or interruption in service. Endurance computes through component failures, delivering seamless service to end users with no loss of application data, no need for transaction rollback, and no loss of performance. Replaced components automatically rejoin the configuration without operator intervention.

About Marathon Technologies
Marathon Technologies Corporation is the leading provider of software that delivers simple, cost-effective, continuous uptime for Intel based servers. Configured with industry-standard servers, the Endurance product family from Marathon Technologies delivers affordable, easy-tomanage fault and disaster tolerance for any Windows application. Marathon is a privately held, venture-backed corporation based in Boxborough, Massachusetts, USA, with offices worldwide.

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For information, please call
+ 1 978 266 9999 or 1-888-682-1142 or visit online at www.marathontechnologies.com.
About Atlas Venture
Atlas Venture is the leading international early-stage venture capital firm, investing in information technology, communications and life sciences companies. With investing offices in Boston,
London, Munich and Paris, Atlas Venture divides its investments between the United States and Europe.

Founded in 1980, Atlas Venture has organized six international funds, and currently manages $2.1 billion in committed capital. The Atlas Venture investment team is comprised of seasoned operating executives and career venture capitalists who have been deeply involved in the formation and development of more than 300 companies worldwide. For more information about Atlas Venture, go to www.atlasventure.com.

About Longworth Venture Partners
Longworth Venture Partners is a Boston-area venture capital firm investing in Internet commerce, Internet media, enterprise software and IT services. The investment team is made up of entrepreneurs who have successfully built technology companies -- lending experience, contacts and skills to help young technology companies flourish. Founded in 1999, Longworth Venture Partners is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information visit www.longworth.com.

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The Marathon logo, Endurance, and FTserver are trademarks or registered trademarks of Marathon Technologies
Corporation. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and
registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (c)2004 Marathon Technologies Corporation.

Linda Mentzer
Marathon Technologies Corporation
+1-978-489-1202
lmentzer@marathontechnologies.com