July 25, 2001

CSK Corporation

CSK Corporation ("CSK") has announced its decision to separate the division responsible for the provision of verification service to found a new company. By making the verification service organization an independent entity, CSK aims to expand its verification business and become a leader in this emerging market.
The new company, named VeriServe Corporation ("VeriServe"), will offer its customers quality verification for IT-related products and systems that are ready for introduction to the market, thereby contributing to the creation of a more attractive IT society.

(1)  Outline of new company

1. Trade name:   VeriServe Corporation
2. Address of headquarters:   2-6-1, Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
3. Capital:   ¥100 million
4. Capital composition:   100% owned by CSK
5. Date of founding:   August 1, 2001
6. Number of employees:   43
7. Representative:   Kiyotaka Asai, President and Representative Director

(2)  Business lines and sales projections

1. Business lines:
   1. System verification (Windows, Linux, information appliance, etc.)
      • Verification in support of development activities (individual verification, consulting, and test environment service)
      • Product verification service (compatibility verification, benchmark testing, and verification information service)
      • Certification service (certification on behalf of Microsoft's WHQL, i.e., Windows Hardware Quality Labs.)
      
      
   2. Application verification
      • Network connection verification (network topology and network equipment)
      • Software operation verification
      
      
2. Sales projections:

   Initial year:   ¥800 mil.
   Second year:  ¥1,600 mil.
   Third year:   ¥2,200 mil.

(3)  Objectives of the new company

Higher awareness of the importance of quality control for IT-related products in recent years has been fueling a growth in demand for verification services and an intensification of calls for further improvement in efficiency in these services. CSK's Verification Service Department, the forerunner of the new company, has been providing various verification services since 1993. During this period, it contributed to the creation of reliable products by addressing verification projects for more than 200 models from over 100 manufacturers per year. The Verification Service Department has received a very high reputation for its accurate verification and evaluation from a third-party standpoint, which only an independent organization with a multi-platform environment can offer.

The objectives in starting a new company are as follows:
The first objective is to ensure independence and neutrality from any specific hardware manufacturer or software vendor by establishing a new organization, which we consider to be of critical importance in executing plans to expand our verification business.
The second objective is to shorten the time required for nurturing human resources. The primary activities under the verification service are planning of test projects, creation of test designs and test cases, test management, and analysis of verification results, which require sets of skills that are quite different from those that are required for the other businesses of CSK. The new company will launch its own education/training programs, in addition to establishing new corporate systems, such as work rotation and employee welfare. These will be built upon the existing achievements from our efforts to date for the proliferation of and education about verification theory, including among many the study of system verification theory, which has been addressed through collaboration between the industrial and academic sectors.
The third objective is to meet the increasing demand for verification service. Research shows that approximately 10% of compatibility verification tests conducted by connecting products from different manufacturers reveal failures. An organization is increasingly called for that can provide useful information and solutions for such failures. Based on its five-year experience in focusing on compatibility verification, CSK's Verification Service Department opened its IT Platform Test Center in June this year, in order to offer an environment with 100 units of the latest PC models for customers to verify their products themselves.

(4)  Future of the verification business

VeriServe will first build the foundation for its business upon our accumulation of know-how and achievements and then establish its business with focus on development support verification and product verification for manufacturers and vendors. Furthermore, the new company will extend its activities into the business fields of verification information service, certification service, and application verification.
VeriServe will work hereafter with a vision of expanding its verification business and becoming a leader in this emerging market. It will also contribute to the creation of a more attractive IT society through the provision of reliable quality verification of IT-related products and systems.