SBC, HP Partner Up

SAN ANTONIO and PALO ALTO, Calif. -- SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC) and HP (NYSE:HPQ; Nasdaq: HPQ) today announced a strategic alliance to help U.S. businesses streamline the management of complex IT and communications environments. The companies, capitalizing on their respective world-class capabilities, plan to provide enterprises with a one-stop, one-call approach to management of complete IT solutions - from PCs and servers to the communications networks that tie them together.

Expanding their long-term relationship, the SBC family of companies and HP intend to work together to develop, deliver and market a portfolio of highly adaptable packaged services that integrate telecom and IT to provide end-to-end managed solutions for enterprise businesses.

For enterprise customers, the alliance provides an opportunity to consolidate ongoing management of the most common IT infrastructure needs: voice and data networks; equipment such as servers, PCs and printers; and desktop software. The integrated solutions are designed to help companies increase productivity and minimize total cost of ownership, particularly when facing key challenges such as implementing new convergence solutions or integrating branch office operations into corporate networks.

Both companies plan to begin jointly marketing each company's services in the first quarter of 2005, and currently plan to develop additional joint offerings, including services designed for smaller businesses, later in the year.

Integrated Solutions for Enterprise Businesses

SBC companies and HP plan to jointly market a portfolio of managed solutions that utilizes HP's expertise in IT and carrier-grade technologies with SBC companies' leadership in advanced communications networking, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service for businesses. The anticipated program would be designed to enable enterprise businesses to take advantage of a customized set of integrated telecom and IT technologies, with the added simplicity of a single point of contact and a single bill. This program would be focused on helping businesses with six common infrastructure challenges:

The two companies plan to develop an integrated managed services program to target enterprise businesses that are adding locations, extending IT and telecom services to branch offices, upgrading to newer Internet Protocol (IP) technologies, supporting new software applications, or seeking lower or more predictable overall network and IT costs.

"This alliance positions the SBC companies and HP to offer seamless, end-to-end IT and telecom solutions and a single point of contact approach that we think many of our respective enterprise customers will find appealing," said Mark Keiffer, senior vice president, SBC Business Marketing. "We are excited to work together with HP to create new opportunities to market each other's products and services."

Hewlett-Packard Co.

SBC Communications Inc.