News release

Compaq and AtosEuronext Deliver Next Generation Solutions for Financial Community

Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) and AtosEuronext, a leading IT solutions provider for stock exchanges, bank and insurance companies and clearing houses, announced today that they have enhanced their 10-year relationship to provide next generation clearing house solutions for financial exchanges.

Solid collaboration between the two companies in the area of capital markets has resulted in AtosEuronext porting its NSC stock and derivatives trading application to run on the NonStop™ Himalaya™ platform, and its application-connection, message switching application, the HUB, to run on the Compaq AlphaServer™ platform. The enhanced relationship provides for joint development, worldwide marketing and support of the Clearing21® product family. Under the terms of the agreement, AtosEuronext and Compaq will offer Clearing21 on Compaq's NonStop Himalaya servers. NonStop Himalaya servers have delivered mission-critical processing systems for exchange automation over the past two decades.

The Clearing21 solution is currently in limited release to customers in the Far East and Europe. The solution will be available worldwide in mid-2002.

"This agreement positions Compaq at the heart of business and technological innovation. State-of-the-art solutions designed by leading-edge partners, such as AtosEuronext, take full advantage of our unmatched NonStop Himalaya architecture," explained Fred Pennino, Compaq's director of global capital markets industry solutions. "Compaq has had a satisfying and rewarding relationship with AtosEuronext for more than a decade. This agreement extends and enhances that relationship and furthers our commitment to the global exchange industry and AtosEuronext."

"We are extremely pleased to bring to market a solution that opens a new era for the clearing and settlement business. We expect the solution to be widely adopted in the very near future," said Dominique Brutin, chief executive officer, AtosEuronext. "We have had very strong interest in the solution, as it provides adopters with a decisive business competitive advantage. Here again, AtosEuronext and Compaq drive innovation for the financial markets."

The new generation Clearing21 solution will enable stock exchanges and clearinghouses to react quickly to the growing market demand for real-time settlements at a time when clearing and settlement operations have become increasingly complex. Market globalization and the rapid growth of clearing and settlement volumes are driving the demand for clearing systems that can provide optimal market liquidity and clearing risk management for clearing houses and members across local and global markets.

Availability of Clearing21 on the NonStop Himalaya platform is a strategic milestone in the AtosEuronext and Compaq relationship. AtosEuronext and Compaq have re-affirmed their commitment to delivering state-of-the-art business solutions on the NonStop Himalaya platform to the exchange and clearing house industry, where the highest degree of innovation is required to meet the mission critical nature of the applications that drive the world markets.

About AtosEuronext

AtosEuronext is the result of the merger of the IT group of Euronext and the systems integration arm of Atos origin. It was formed to provide solutions and consultancy to the banking and finance industry. Today, AtosEuronext has customers on all five continents, ready to apply its unique expertise in the service of financial markets.

The NSC software is deployed in 14 countries on five continents including exchanges such as Euronext NV, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Singapore and São Paulo exchanges.

Between 1999 and 2000, Clearing 21 was completely re-engineered by AtosEuronext and now includes clearing for equities markets as well as derivatives markets; real-time and batch processing (Clearing 21 is the only Clearing product that can manage position in real time); packaging as an open-architecture portable software product that can be marketed worldwide; and a full set of functions that meet close to 100% of the needs of the core business.

Thus, the introduction of Clearing 21 into the financial market has provided another opportunity for AtosEuronext and Compaq to join forces.

About Compaq

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation ("Compaq") is a leading global provider of enterprise technology and solutions. Compaq designs, develops, manufactures and markets hardware, software, solutions and services, including industry-leading enterprise storage and computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, communication products, and desktop and portable personal computers that are sold in more than 200 countries. Information on Compaq and its products and services is available at http://www.compaq.com.