ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Hathaway Corporation (OTC BB:HWYI.OB - News), a leading global provider of communications and OSS software, today announced the change in management of Hathaway Corporation. Mr. John Marshal Batton, from OptiCon Systems Inc. and a former Lucent executive, has agreed to come on board as President of Hathaway upon completion of the purchase of OptiCon, Inc.

As Managing Vice President at Lucent Technologies, NetCare Division, Mr. Batton grew his business unit from $4 million per year in '96 to over $450 million per year in '01. Mr. Batton was chartered at Metasolv Software, an OSS software vendor, to create sales and support organizations that could expand their presence in the RBOC marketplace and create a strategy to penetrate the enterprise marketplace. His personally selected and trained team grew the RBOC business (SBC, Quest, Bell South, Bell Canada, Verizon and Genuity) from $500,000 per year to $18.5 million in the first twelve months.

"The ability for Hathaway to secure Mr. Batton was an integral part of our negotiations in the purchase of OptiCon. We are very pleased Mr. Batton has decided to join Hathaway and lead our company in the RBOC marketplace," states Sam Talari, Chairman of Hathaway. Mr. Talari goes on to say, "Mr. Batton's vast experience in building strong sales teams that deliver incredible results will insure the integration of OptiCon into Hathaway's business model is seamless and the revenue goals we set forth will be realized in the very near future."