May 18, 2004 - Avnet Partner Solutions Austria Wins IBM Top Performer Award

Vienna -- Avnet Partner Solutions Austria, a value-added distributor of enterprise computing systems, has been honoured with the IBM Top Performer Award for Austria.

During the award ceremony, Günter Graf, manager of the IBM Business Partner organisation, described the customer-orientated attitude of Avnet Austria as being a de-cisive factor: “Above all, the competent consultation and excellent customer service gained customers of many IBM business partners for Avnet. Together with the consulta-tion for hardware and software, Avnet also offers IBM certification courses. These help the personnel of our IBM business partners retain a high-level of knowledge, which in the end is to the advantage of IBM customers. Through exceptional sales efforts and investment in personnel skills Avnet Partner Solutions became one of our essential busi-ness partners in Austria in 2003. I am also looking forward in 2004 to being able to work with such a success-orientated partner!”

“This award is above all due to the excellent performance of our people at Avnet Part-ner Solutions. They have all shown how seriously they take our obligation to customer orientation. And I know that there is a great deal of individual engagement involved in this success. I should like to offer a heartfelt thanks to the entire team,” said Roman Rudolf, Avnet Partner Solutions country manager, Austria.

“Avnet Partner Solutions’ motto is ‘Dedicated to Your Success’,” Rudolf added. “Our aim is to bring our customers to a good market position and to support their success through our services and offerings. When our customers do well, we also do well.”

About IBM:
With 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate, IBM is the world's largest information technology company. IBM is a leading provider of e-business solutions and is dedicated to help-ing companies, Business Partners and developers leverage the potential of the Internet and net-work computing across a wide range of businesses and industries. The company offers a host of cross-industry and industry specific solutions designed to meet the needs of companies of all sizes. For more information visit: www.ibm.com/at

About Avnet:
Avnet Partner Solutions ( www.ps.avnet.com ) is an industry leading, value-added distributor of enterprise computing systems, software, storage, networking solutions and services, marketing exclusively to the value-added reseller channel. With European offices in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, Avnet Partner Solutions is a division of the $ 4 billion Avnet Technology Solutions operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT). Avnet enables success at the center of the technology industry, providing cost-effective services and solutions vital to a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and 250 suppliers. The company markets, distributes and adds value to semiconductors, interconnect, passive and electromechanical components, enterprise computer and network equipment, soft-ware, storage and embedded subsystems. Through its premiere market position, Avnet brings a breadth and depth of capabilities which help its trading partners accelerate growth and realize cost efficiencies. Avnet generated more than $9B of revenue in fiscal 2003 (year ended June 27, 2003) with sales in 68 countries. Visit www.avnet.com/ 

Avnet Partner Solutions
Stipcakgasse 40
A-1230 Wien
Tel.: 01- 61488-0
Fax: 01- 61488-80
http://www.ps.avnet.com/at

Brigitte Percht-Kammerlander
MarCom Manager
Tel: 01-61488-341
Email: brigitte.percht@avnet.com