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Palm Names David C. Nagel President, CEO of Platform Solutions



SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 28, 2001 –– Palm, Inc. today announced that David C. Nagel has been named president and chief executive officer of the Palm OS(R) platform subsidiary being formed. Nagel leaves AT&T, where he was the company's chief technology officer and president of AT&T Labs. He has been a member of the Palm board of directors since February 2000.

Nagel's appointment is the latest in a series of management actions designed to improve the company's competitive capabilities and build upon its position as a handheld computer and platform leader. In recent months, the company has moved aggressively to strengthen management; refocus and refine its platform, product and solutions portfolio; and bring costs in line with business conditions.

"We can think of no one more qualified to shape our Platform Solutions Group into a highly competitive wholly owned subsidiary and extend the success of the Palm Economy in the marketplace than Dave Nagel," said Carl Yankowski, chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. "His broad relevant background and technical acumen is well known, and he hits the ground running with a deep understanding of the Palm OS, its strengths and its full potential."

"Palm's plan to create two independent leading companies –– one focused on platform software and licensing, the other on hardware and software handheld solutions –– takes another significant step forward with Dave Nagel at the helm of the future platform software subsidiary," said Eric Benhamou, chairman of the Palm board of directors. "The platform company will operate in close partnership with all its licensees, including the Solutions Group at Palm, its largest customer. The entire Palm board believes this appointment, plus the other decisive moves Palm recently has made, significantly increases our potential to create shareholder value."

"I'm delighted to lead the Palm platform business as it moves into its next phase," Nagel said. "While it was very hard to leave AT&T, the opportunity to lead the handheld industry's leading software platform company is an excellent fit with my skills and interests. I am excited about the potential to extend the reach of Palm's platform as the mobile market expands into new areas, such as wireless communications and multimedia, and as handheld computers gain ground as productivity solutions in the enterprise."

Nagel, 56, who will join Palm Sept. 17, will report to the Palm board of directors until the new software subsidiary is formed sometime before the end of the year. At that time, it is anticipated that he will report to a separate board and operate as an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Palm. Nagel will continue to be a member of the Palm board of directors.

This is the fourth announcement Palm has made in recent weeks in support of its Palm OS platform business. The company extended its licensing program to include ARM silicon suppliers (July 24), announced intentions to separate the Platform Solutions Group into a wholly owned subsidiary by the end of calendar 2001 (July 27), and announced its intention to purchase certain assets of Be Incorporated and to offer positions to Be's technical staff (Aug. 16). The additional Be technology will augment Palm's future capability in development tools, and user–centric communications, Internet, and multimedia technologies.

Nagel's appointment to lead the Platform Solutions Group follows the June 1 appointment of Todd Bradley as a Palm executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Solutions Group. Bradley, 42, reports to Yankowski and is operationally responsible for Palm's handheld computers, accessories and add–ons, including products that take advantage of an innovative dual–expansion architecture.

Nagel's Background

As AT&T's chief technology officer, Nagel led its technology strategy and R&D planning. As president of AT&T Labs, he was responsible for managing R&D for the company's next–generation Internet Protocol, data and managed services, and AT&T Business Services IT systems. Nagel also served as the chief technology officer for Concert, the global joint venture between AT&T and British Telecom.

Prior to joining AT&T, Nagel was senior vice president at Apple Computer, where he led the worldwide research and development group responsible for Macintosh OS software, Macintosh hardware, imaging and other peripheral products. Before joining Apple in 1988, Nagel was head of human factors at NASA's Ames Research Center.

He has served on a number of national and international advisory committees and in February 1997, he was named to President Clinton's first Advisory Committee on High Performance Computing, Communication, and the Next Generation Internet. He currently serves on the successor to that committee, President Bush's PITAC (President's Information Technology Advisory Committee). He was named to the Federal Communications Commission's Technological Advisory Council in April 1999.

Nagel is a member of the board of directors of Liberate, Inc.; ArcSoft; and RespondTV. He also is a member of the Board of Trustees of the UCLA Foundation.

He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering and a doctorate in experimental psychology, all from the University of California, Los Angeles.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers, according to IDC (December 2000). Based on the Palm OS® platform, Palm's handheld solutions allow people to carry and access their most critical information with them wherever they go. Palm(TM) handhelds address the needs of individuals, enterprises and educational institutions through thousands of application solutions.

The Palm OS platform is also the foundation for products from Palm's licensees and strategic partners, such as Franklin Covey, HandEra (formerly TRG), Handspring, IBM, Kyocera, Sony, and Symbol Technologies. Platform licensees also include Acer, Garmin, Nokia and Samsung. The Palm Economy is a growing global community of industry-leading licensees, world-class OEM customers, and more than 160,000 innovative developers and solution providers that have registered to develop solutions based on the Palm OS platform. Palm went public on March 2, 2000. Its stock is traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol PALM. More information is available at www.palm.com

Palm OS is a registered trademark, and Palm is a trademark of Palm, Inc. or its subsidiaries.





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