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Polycom and Cisco Systems Announce Strategic Agreement for Joint Development
                         Of IP Telephony Solutions
 Industry Leaders Sign Agreement for Joint Development, Licensing and Sales
         To Deliver Enhanced IP Telephones to Enterprise Customers
   SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Polycom(R), Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM),
the global leader in multimedia communication solutions, and Cisco Systems,
Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) today announced a strategic agreement for joint
development, licensing and sales of Internet protocol (IP) telephony
solutions.  Designed to deliver enhanced IP telephones to enterprise
customers, this agreement combines Polycom's leadership in audioconferencing
technologies and Cisco's industry-leading expertise in IP networking and IP
telephony.
   Under the terms of this five-year agreement, Cisco will incorporate
Polycom's patented Acoustic Clarity Technology(TM) (ACT), the world's leading
full-duplex, hands-free audioconferencing technology, into the next generation
of Cisco's IP telephony handsets.  With the addition of Polycom's ACT, Cisco
IP telephony handsets will also include the "Clarity by Polycom(TM)"
ingredient brand mark.  Polycom's best-in-class ACT audioconferencing
technology has made Polycom conference phones the corporate standard in
meeting rooms around the world.
   As part of the agreement, Polycom and Cisco will collaborate to develop
the next-generation of Polycom's award-winning SoundStation(R) conference
phone, which will integrate best-in-class Cisco IP telephony technology.  This
new SoundStation phone will be jointly marketed and sold by both Polycom and
Cisco through direct sales and each company's respective channels.  Further,
Cisco and Polycom will cooperate in the integration of Cisco's AVVID
(Architecture for Voice Video and Integrated Data) Open Telephony interface
for incorporation into future Polycom IP telephones and other media rich
endpoint products.
   "Enterprise adoption of IP telephony is taking off, allowing customers to
thrive in Internet-based business models while achieving a lower total cost of
ownership for the overall network," said Mario Mazzola, senior vice president
of Cisco's Enterprise Line of Business.  "In striving to provide the end-user
with the best voice over IP experience possible, we are further enhancing the
voice quality and ease of use features of our IP telephones by incorporating
superior hands-free performance capabilities developed by Polycom.
Collaborating with first-in-class companies such as Polycom, we will continue
to extend the Cisco AVVID open architecture for voice, video and integrated
data."
   "Continuing to deliver on our IP strategy, we're pleased to work with
Cisco to develop best-in-class voice over IP products and look forward to the
market opportunities that this joint development agreement will provide us
and, ultimately, our customers," said Bob Hagerty, president and CEO of
Polycom.  "As the market leaders in media-rich communications, we are always
looking for opportunities to extend the benefits of high-quality voice and
video communications to even more users."
   IP telephony is becoming increasingly important as enterprise customers
begin to realize the benefits and recent advances of the technology.  The
worldwide IP telephony market is projected to grow to 2.7 billion minutes of
use by the end of 1999, compared with 310 million minutes of use in 1998,
according to a study released last month by International Data Corp. (IDC).
IDC further predicts widespread use of IP telephony in the business market by
2001.
   About Polycom
   Polycom is the only company in the world that develops, manufactures and
markets a full range of high-quality audio, data and video conferencing
products to enable multimedia collaboration.  Polycom's innovative,
award-winning products provide customers with high performance and ease of use
at an affordable price to create a media-rich experience on any network.  For
additional information, call 800-POLYCOM or 408-526-9000 or visit the Polycom
web site at http://www.polycom.com .
   NOTE:  Polycom, the Polycom logo design and SoundStation are registered
trademarks and Acoustic Clarity Technology are trademarks of Polycom, Inc. in
the U.S. and various countries.  All other trademarks are property of their
respective owners.
SOURCE  Polycom, Inc.
   -0-                             10/19/1999

   /CONTACT:  Sue O'Neil of Polycom, Inc., 408-474-2746, or
soneil@polycom.com; or Molly Wilcox of Phase Two Strategies, 415-772-8420, or
mollywilcox@p2pr.com, for Polycom, Inc./
   /Web site:  http://www.polycom.com/

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