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From: "Masami Okano" 
To: "Masami Okano" 
Subject: [Press Release]A new company in Japanese Linux market, "LASER5 Co., Ltd." is established!
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 06:43:49 +0900


-Press Release    August 18 1999
************************************************************
    The OS department of the Itsutsubashi Research Co., ltd.
    becomesindependent.
                "LASER5 Co., Ltd." is established!
************************************************************
On August 5th, Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. announced that a new
company called "LASER5 Co., Ltd." is established to promote the open
source business.
LASER5 is a subsidiary of Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. who invests
full amount of LASER5 capital, and all of the trade rights in the OS
department of Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. are transferred to
LASER5. LASER5 will start the operation from the end of August.

Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. has been groping about the model of
open source business from the very early stage of the Linux business.
At present, Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. is operating in various
sectors of Linux related business as listed below.

1.  Publication of monthly magazine "Linux Japan" and mail magazine
     "Linux Japan Express".
2.  Operating web site "Linux Japan. com".
3.  Operating the store "CD-ROM SHOP LASER5" which imports the
    latest software for the free Unix and cool games.
4.  Operating the web shop "LASER5 ONLINE".
5.  Promotion of RedHat Linux of Japanese version.
6.  Supporting the open source community.

There are two reasons why LASER5 Co., Ltd. has been established
independent from Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd..

1.  It is not preferable to have both media department and OS
    department in the same company from the consumers' point of
    view, though the company has a fire wall between departments.
2.  It is expected to have a tremendous growth of Linux related OS
    business in the near future.

Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. will continue the same business as it
has been doing up to now except OS department has done.
Namely, publishing technical books and monthly magazines, issuing the
mail magazine about open source, and running the web site.

LASER5 will do what the OS department of Itsutsubashi Research
Co., Ltd. has done. In the meantime, LASER5 will promote and
support the RedHat Linux business and seek  possibilities of the open
source business as well.

LASER5 takes over the most part of the OS department business in
Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. and the OS department of Itsutsubashi
will be dissolved when LASER5 starts its business.
As for the capital policy, LASER5 starts from the full invested subsidiary
of Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. and the capital will be increased
promptly, and the share of LASER5's stocks held by Itsutsubashi
Research Co., Ltd. will be decreased.

Toshiyuki Kubota is the representative director of LASER5.
Nobuharu Inui(Chief director of Itsutsubashi OS department) and Akihiro
Kubota(The managing director of Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd.) are the
directors of LASER5. The other executives are not decided yet.

Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd.(http://www.cdrom.co.jp/) started to sell
the first Japanese Linux with community persons' cooperation in 1993
and it is the main distributor fo RedHat Linux in Japan since 1996,
distributing over one million copies of RedHat Linux Japanese version
(as of July, 1999). Also, the publication department of Itsutsubashi
Research Co., Ltd. published the first magazine "Linux Japan" specialized
in the Linux in 1996 as well as books related to computer.  In addition,
Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd. is selling software's and opeerating web
shop
"LASER5 ONLINE" in Akihabara.

For inquiry, please contact with Masami Okano,
Public relations  & marketing, The OS department, by E-mail.

The Itsutsubashi Research Co., Ltd.
Kowa Bldg #3, 2Fl.,5-6-12 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Zip Code #101-0021
Phone:813-5818-6626     FAX:813-5818-6627