Through this relationship, which includes Nortel Networks taking a $10 million minority equity investment in Talarian, the two companies plan to jointly test, develop and market the next generation of real-time eBusiness infrastructure, combining Talarian's SmartSockets* software and Nortel Networks' high-performance Internet solutions.

Recognizing the need to stay ahead of the enormous wave of real-time, transaction-based Internet use, the two companies plan to create end-to-end data, video and voice networking solutions that will significantly raise the performance of real-time transaction and information services. In addition to offering solutions for fiber-optic networks, the companies are expected to provide real-time solutions for data distribution over wireless networks.

"By combining the benefits of the high-performance Internet and real-time access, we can help our customers put money in the bank," said Paul Callahan, vice-president, strategy and technology investments, Nortel Networks. "In the second generation of eBusiness it will be critical for customers to have instant access to data and eBusiness applications. Without it, they will eventually lose in the marketplace. Through our partnership, we will combine our high-performance Internet capabilities with Talarian's software, creating a seamless, real-time eBusiness connection."

Real-time infrastructure software enables many eBusiness applications such as those demanded by the world's leading high-volume financial exchanges and brokerage houses. Talarian has established a strong foothold in this market with customers such as the NYSE, Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), Credit Suisse First Boston, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange and Primex, a key provider for after-hours trading networks.

Callahan, who will join Talarian's Board of Directors, said that while the financial services industry is the initial focus for joint marketing and sales, efforts will expand to other industries in the first quarter.

Other industry segments ripe for these applications, which will be marketed under the SmartSockets brand name, include:

• News and financial data distribution
• On-line audio and video streaming
• Videoconferencing: distance-learning, remote meetings and telecommuting
• Telecommunications: real-time calling card fraud detection and monitoring; control of network devices, including distribution of alarms and errors, and call and service routing
• Manufacturing and process control: real-time collection, monitoring, and distribution of sensor data from factory floors
• Military/aerospace: real-time signal collection and data distribution from satellites, radar, and integration and test stands.

"As the operator of the NYSE network, SIAC is very pleased to see these companies working together," said Joe Kubat, executive vice president, NYSE Services, SIAC. "We use products from Nortel Networks and Talarian today in our trading systems and networks. In a world of billion-share days, critically dependent on reliable real-time message delivery systems, the Nortel Networks-Talarian partnership will provide significant benefits to our industry."

"Our relationship with Nortel Networks gives our business customers a significant performance advantage, especially those with the most pressing needs for highly-scalable, real-time applications," said Paul Larson, president and chief executive officer, Talarian. "With the rapid shift to a second generation of eBusiness, the integration of software with the high-performance Internet has never been more important."

Real-time eBusiness infrastructure software enables the rapidly emerging "businessware management" software market, which is on a rapid growth track, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

IDC research forecasts that businessware management system revenues will grow by a 77 compound rate annually, and will experience more than 1,700 percent growth from 1998 to 2003, increasing from $313 million in 1998 to $5.3 billion in 2003. The market is driven by the emerging need for instantaneous communication in such applications as stock market data transfer to traders, brokers and the general public over Wide Area Networks (WAN) and the Internet.

"Just about everyone acknowledges the essential role that businessware plays in today's world of increasingly distributed systems and eBusiness," said Ed Acly, director of IDC's Middleware and Businessware Research. "For a wide variety of reasons, it is becoming increasingly likely that distributed applications will need to be integrated with one another in order to deliver the value that businesses will require in the future, in order to compete. Ongoing growth in the segment results from the need for a better way to deliver application integration, event-driven processing, and business process automation. Over the next few years, IDC expects real-time communications and business process automation will increasingly kick in to drive the expected growth."

The announcement was made in San Francisco today at the mcast 2000 Summit, where Nortel Networks delivered the keynote address outlining a vision for the future of multicasting and real-time eBusiness. Talarian also delivered a speech on the status and future of reliable multicast standards. These Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards are key to allowing the next wave of "broadcast" applications for the Internet. Nortel Networks and Talarian are combining their efforts to continue driving these IETF standards forward.

About Talarian
Talarian Corporation is a leading provider of real-time infrastructure software powering the corporate enterprise and the Internet. Through extensive OEM relationships, Talarian's products are running on more computers than any other middleware in the world. Talarian software is deployed by hundreds of the world's largest organizations in their most demanding applications, including the New York Stock Exchange, Credit Suisse First Boston, Lucent Technologies, Salomon Smith Barney, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, Nortel Networks, Broadcast.com, MCI WorldCom, MindSpring and Southwest Airlines. Talarian is a member of the International Middleware Association (IMWA), the IMPI, the Securities Industry Association (SIA) and the Object Management Group (OMG). A privately-held company, Talarian is based in Los Altos, Calif., with satellite offices throughout the United States and the world. For more information, visit Talarian online at www.talarian.com.

About Nortel Networks
Nortel Networks is a global leader in telephony, data, eBusiness, and wireless solutions for the Internet. The Company had 1999 U.S. GAAP revenues of US$21.3 billion and serves carrier, service provider and enterprise customers globally. Today, Nortel Networks is creating a high-performance Internet that is more reliable and faster than ever before. It is redefining the economics and quality of networking and the Internet through Unified Networks* that promise a new era of collaboration, communications and commerce. Visit us at www.nortelnetworks.com.

Certain information included in this press release is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Factors which could cause results or events to differ from current expectations include, among other things: the impact of price and product competition; the dependence on new product development; the impact of rapid technological and market change; the ability of Nortel Networks to integrate the operations and technologies of acquired businesses in an effective manner; general industry and market conditions and growth rates; international growth and global economic conditions, particularly in emerging markets and including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; unanticipated impact of Year 2000 issues; and the impact of consolidations in the telecommunications industry. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see the reports filed by Nortel Networks with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Nortel Networks disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.