Leuven, Belgium – March 15, 2006 – Option N.V. (Euronext: OPTI, OTC: OPNVY), the wireless technology company, today announced that Mr. David Hytha, a wireless entrepreneur and former Executive Vice President Terminals for T-Mobile in Europe, has agreed to join its Board of Directors, as new member, expanding the company’s board size from six to seven.
Final appointment of the new director will be subject to vote at the annual meeting of shareholders to be held on Friday March 31, 2006. Mr. Hytha will act as a non-independent Board Member.
Jan Callewaert, CEO Option: “We are very excited about having David joining our Board of Directors. David has a wealth of experience within the wireless industry in areas such as product development and marketing. Drawing on his depth and breadth of knowledge of the telecom industry, David will be a great addition to our Board.”
Mr. David A. Hytha, 51, is a wireless executive and entrepreneur and was most recently Executive Vice President, Terminals for T-Mobile in Europe, responsible for the selection, marketing and development of all handsets for T-Mobile in Europe. His career includes leadership roles in mobile communications handsets, infrastructure, services and systems-on-chip solutions in industry-leading firms and successful new ventures including: Silicon Wave (now RFMD), LGC Wireless (in-building antenna systems), Motorola, McCaw Cellular (now Cingular Wireless), AT&T Network Systems (now Lucent) and AT&T Microelectronics (now Agere), including founding the first overseas department of Bell Laboratories.
His industry innovations include contributing to the first open internet mobile service offering (T-Mobile’s ‘Internet in Your Pocket’), building T-Mobile into a handset leader including a significant PDA brand, building the world’s first standard Bluetooth chipset (Version 1.1) , shipping the world’s first distributed in-building antenna system, initiating the program to form a major new mobile carrier (FarEasTone in Taiwan), winning the world’s first 3G handset contract (one of five suppliers to NTT DoCoMo in 1996) and successful development, branding and marketing of new mobile services and products.
Mr. David A. Hytha holds a MBA from Columbia University in New York and a BA from the College of the Holy Cross. He is active in supporting community development and education projects in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Asia. A Californian, he is married, has two children and currently lives in London, England.
Option’s continuing Board Directors are: Jan Callewaert, Founder and Chairman Option – Triakon N.V. represented by Lucien De Schamphelaere, Board member of Melexis N.V. (Euronext: MELE) – Arnoud De Meyer, Professor of Technology Management and Deputy Dean at INSEAD and Board member of Dassault Systems S.A. (Euronext: DSY.PA, NASDAQ DASTY) – Philip Vermeulen, Advisor and Director of various companies active in the information technology business – Jan Loeber, member of the Board of Directors of Tele2 (TEL2_A.ST) in Sweden, advisor to the CEO of Interxion, BV in The Netherlands and Chairman of Newfound Comm (Boston) and Vino Via (NL) and – Mr. Lawrence Levy, Senior Counsel at Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP.
ABOUT OPTION:
Option NV (www.option.com), the wireless technology company, is a leading innovator in the design, development and manufacture of 3G WCDMA (HSDPA and UMTS), EDGE, GPRS, GSM and WLAN technology products for wireless connectivity solutions. Option has built up an enviable reputation for creating exciting products that enhance the performance and functionality of wireless communications. Option’s headquarters are in Leuven, Belgium. The company has Research & Development in Leuven, a Software and Applications development centre in Adelsried (Germany), a Wireless Router development centre in Stockholm (Sweden) and an ISO 9002 production engineering and logistics facility in Cork, Ireland.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Jan Callewaert, CEO or Frederic Convent, CFO
Tel + 32 (0) 16 317 411, E-mail: investor@option.com