LAS VEGAS, Nov. 29, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- PurchasePro (Nasdaq:PPRO) today announced the appointment of W. Donald Bell, chairman and chief executive officer of Bell Microproducts (Nasdaq:BELM), and James Schraith, senior advisor to Quantum Technology Ventures, and formerly chief executive officer of Snap Appliances, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quantum Corporation (NYSE:DSS), to its board of directors. Mr. Bell (63) and Mr. Schraith (44) replace John G. Chiles and Michael D. O'Brien on the board.
Mr. Bell has served as chairman and chief executive of Bell Microproducts, a Fortune 1000 company, since its inception in 1987. Bell Microproducts is an international, value-added provider of a wide range of high-technology products, solutions and services to the industrial and commercial markets. The company's offering includes semiconductors, computer platforms, peripherals, and storage products of various types including desktop, high-end computer and storage subsystems, Fibre Channel Connectivity products, RAID, NAS and SAN storage systems, back-up products, storage management software, and extensive support, integration and installation services.
Mr. Schraith has been in his senior advisory capacity to Quantum Technology Ventures for two years. The fund invests in a broad range of companies that participate in the enterprise infrastructure market including the storage, networking and enterprise software segments. Earlier in his career Mr. Schraith was president and chief operating officer of AST Research and presently serves on the boards of Semtech Corporation (Nasdaq:SMTC) and SONICblue (Nasdaq:SBLU), as well as several private companies.
Richard L. Clemmer, chief executive officer of PurchasePro, said, "We are very pleased to have Mr. Bell and Mr. Schraith join our board of directors. I have known them both for many years and believe very strongly that they will help to guide PurchasePro through its current challenging transition period and to the achievement of its objectives."
About PurchasePro: PurchasePro(r), www.purchasepro.com, is a B2B e-commerce leader with the stated goal of providing software to enable enterprises of all sizes to gain universal access to the world's largest commerce network. The PurchasePro Commerce Network comprises more than 300,000 businesses, authorized to buy and sell, and powers hundreds of private-label marketplaces. PurchasePro provides the following B2B e-commerce solutions: e-Procurement for enterprise-wide procurement; e-Source for strategic sourcing, v-Distributor for online distributors; and e-MarketMaker for Internet market makers.
Safe Harbor: This news release may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to the "Safe Harbor" created by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent only the views of certain members of management and are based on limited information available to us now, which is subject to change. We have no current plan to update these statements. Actual results may differ substantially from what we say today and no one should assume at a later date that the forward-looking statements provided herein are still valid. They speak only as of today. For more information about these risks and uncertainties, see the SEC filings of PurchasePro.com, Inc., including the section titled "Factors That May Affect Results" in its 10-K filing for the period ended December 31, 2000, and its 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2001, which are available from the company on request and on the Internet at the SEC's Website, www.sec.gov.