Optosof appoints Jörn Lyseggen as new CEO

Optosof appoints Jörn Lyseggen as new CEO The Board of the SBI-listed Internet company, Optosof AB (publ), resolved at a Board meeting held on 23 February to appoint Jörn Lyseggen CEO in succession to Lennart Fernheden, who is standing down after 12 years as CEO. Jörn Lyseggen, until now the President of the Norwegian Internet company, Mogul AS, will spearhead the continued international expansion of the Internet group. "We will focus above all on two areas. The first is to ensure that the integration of our latest corporate acquisitions goes as smoothly as on previous occasions. The second is our continued expansion both through establishing ourselves in new markets and through strengthening our position on those markets where we already have a presence," says Jörn Lyseggen, the incoming CEO of Optosof AB (publ). The retiring CEO, Lennart Fernheden, started Optosof in 1987. In spring 1999, the Board decided to change the company's focus to offer not only the market's fastest publication solutions for large quantities of data, but also to develop digital solutions for the winning companies of the future. The Internet is changing the ground rules for most of today's companies, and Optosof saw the opportunity to play an active part in this transformation process. The Internet company, Clockwork, was the perfect partner for Optosof. Together they began to build a group which can take total responsibility for the creation and implementation of major Internet projects. The company adopted a more aggressive expansion strategy, and, during 1999, an additional three Swedish Internet companies were acquired: Linewise, Grape AS and base8. In early 2000,the group acquired a further five Internet companies: Mogul, Numerica Taskon and Win HLP in Norway, Datastrategi in Sweden and Webstation in Finland. Overall, Optosof has expanded from 30 people to 400 in less than 12 months. "The group is now powering ahead, and the past year has been incredibly exciting. We have delivered what we promised our investors, and we are ideally placed for continued expansion. I am delighted to hand over to Jörn. He represents the next generation of highly effective company managers, and he will lead the group to new successes. Some of our major shareholders have asked me to remain on the Board, and I am happy to do so," says Lennart Fernheden, who is standing down as CEO. Photographs of Jörn Lyseggen for publication is available on www.optosof.com Optosof in brief The Optosof group will help innovative companies to identify and take advantage of new business opportunities, focussing on the Internet, by developing and implementing comprehensive IT-related communications solutions and business systems. The Group, with its subsidiaries Clockwork Consulting AB, Clockwork AS, Optosof Sweden AB, Optosof Ltd, Optosof GmbH, Linewise AB, base8 AB, Freezone Hosting AB, Datastrategi AB, Mogul AS, Numerica Taskon AS, WinHLP AS, Webstation Oy and Punkt Edu AB (56%) currently has about 400 employees in Sweden, Norway, the UK, Finland and Germany. The company has been listed on the SBI share list since July 1997. More information on Optosof is available on www.optosof.com For further information, please contact: Jörn Lyseggen, CEO, Tel + 46 (0)8 56 24 00 00, Mobile + 47 906 54 480, e- mail: jorn.lyseggen@hk.optosof.se Magdalena Bonde, Vice President, Tel + 46 (0)8 56 24 00 00, Mobile + 46 (0)708 28 48 28, e-mail magdalena.bonde@hk.optosof.se ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/02/24/20000224BIT00730/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/02/24/20000224BIT00730/bit0002.pdf