Hitachi Data Systems Announces New CEO and Executive Management Team

Shinjiro Iwata and New Executive Team Target Continued Market Share Expansion in 2002

SANTA CLARA, California, December 17, 2001 — Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), today announced the arrival of its new president and chief executive officer, Mr. Shinjiro Iwata. The company further announced two significant, new additions to its executive management team: Marlene Woodworth, vice president and general manager, global marketing and operations; and Christine Wallis, vice president, global strategy and planning.

Iwata, a seasoned executive with a 29-year career at Hitachi, Ltd., will also serve as Hitachi Data Systems' managing director and chairman of the executive committee. Mr. Iwata succeeds Dr. Jun Naruse, who will return to Japan as executive officer of Hitachi, Ltd.'s Information Systems & Telecommunications Group.

"I am very pleased to return to Hitachi Data Systems as CEO," said Shinjiro Iwata. "I am also extremely impressed with the growth and progress achieved by the company since my earlier tenure here as executive vice president at Hitachi Data Systems just one year ago. Under my leadership, the new executive team will continue to focus heavily on strategic direct sales, global alliances, and technology innovation to forge ahead with our goal of becoming the number one storage company by 2004."

As executive vice president and general manager, global marketing and operations, Marlene Woodworth will focus on continuing the expansion of Hitachi Data Systems' direct sales engagements and worldwide channel initiatives. Woodworth formerly served as vice president of product marketing and management at Hitachi Data Systems and led marketing teams responsible for the successful global launches of the Hitachi Freedom Storage™ Lightning 9900™ Series and the Thunder 9200™ Series storage arrays.

As vice president, global strategy and planning, Christine Wallis will collaborate closely with Hitachi, Ltd., to pursue investment and M&A opportunities for Hitachi's global storage business, a business where Hitachi, Ltd., is considering investing up to 1.25B USD for M&A within the next year (with an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar). Wallis formerly served as vice president of global storage marketing for Hitachi Data Systems from 1998-1999, and was promoted to vice president of the OEM business unit, where she successfully managed the growth of Hitachi Data Systems' OEM sales to Hewlett-Packard until March 2000. Wallis most recently served as vice president of the Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) unit of Hitachi America, Ltd., where she was a core member of the 80M USD fund, which created new business opportunities through investments in emerging technology companies.

"It truly is an exciting time to welcome Mr. Iwata as the new leader of Hitachi Data Systems, especially now as the company gears up to take full advantage of its unique position in the storage marketplace," said Dave Roberson, COO, Hitachi Data Systems. "Our new senior executive team is comprised of the best talent and the most comprehensive experience, and will enable us to achieve our strategic goals in 2002, and continue to gain share in key market segments."

Highlights of Hitachi, Ltd.'s global storage business for the first half of fiscal year 2001:

• For the first half of fiscal year 2001, Hitachi, Ltd.'s global SAN/NAS solutions business, of which HDS represents 75% on a fiscal basis, successfully managed to increase storage revenues by 20% over the first half of fiscal year 2000 to 1B USD* (120B yen). During the same timeframe, high-end RAID storage petabyte shipments increased 100% to 6.6 petabytes, and mid-range storage petabyte shipments rose 160% to 1.3 petabytes. In a recent conference call to investors, A.G. Edwards enterprise storage analyst Shebly Seyrafi noted that "HDS is the fastest growing company in high-end RAID, and continues to gain material market share versus its key competitors."
• Additionally, a recent A.G. Edwards report by Shebly Seyrafi ("HDS-Menacing EMC's Business Model," December 3, 2001) indicates that Hitachi has doubled its market share in the high-end RAID marketplace, to 32.3%, up from 16.1% in Jan., 2000. "Hitachi global storage hardware revenues grew to nearly 80% of EMC's hardware revenues in the Sept. quarter, up from 38% in the June quarter, implying strong sequential share gains vs. EMC. Meanwhile, Hitachi's terabyte growth more than doubled during the six-month period ended Sept., and we find this to be more impressive than the results of Hitachi's closest competitors."
• For the entire fiscal year 2001, Hitachi, Ltd., carries a forecast of 4% growth for its global SAN/NAS solutions business. "This growth rate is excellent at a time when HDS' competitors are posting 40-50% year-on-year declines," said Seyrafi in his recent report.
• Hitachi Data Systems' recently announced HiCommand™ storage management framework is gaining considerable attention in the storage industry, with nearly 40 independent software vendors (ISVs) writing to its Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), including Sun Microsystems, VERITAS, Microsoft, BMC, CA, and InterSAN. HiCommand is designed to increase the level of automation for optimizing the performance of storage systems, enabling administrators to be able to replace manual activity with an automatic means of monitoring, analyzing, and balancing data volumes.

Shinjiro Iwata initially joined Hitachi Data Systems in 1997 as an executive vice president in the storage line of business, during which time he helped forge the successful OEM relationship with Hewlett-Packard. The original agreement, signed in May 1999, allowed HP to combine Hitachi's core array technology with HP's open system software and solutions to create the HP SureStore XP storage array family, which exceeded sales of 1B USD earlier this year. Iwata served in this capacity until August, 2000, when he returned to Hitachi, Ltd., to serve as deputy general manager of the International Business Planning & Development Division; and subsequently, as the general manager (Global Business Planning) of Hitachi's Global Business Development Division.

Prior to his first tenure at Hitachi Data Systems, Iwata served as department manager of the Planning Department for Hitachi's Information Systems & Telecommunications Group, its largest and most strategic business segment. Iwata's team promoted Hitachi's PC business in the U.S., culminating in the establishment of the Hitachi PC Corp. in San Jose, CA. Iwata began his career at Hitachi, Ltd. in 1972, in the International Sales Division. He progressed steadily through a variety of roles, from assistant manager of Hitachi's Singapore office to section manager of the Plug Compatible Mainframe (PCM) computer department, to department manager of the computer department of the International Trade Division.

Iwata is a native of Kagawa, Japan, and holds a B.S. in Engineering from Waseda University.

Hitachi Data Systems is a leading supplier of storage hardware, software, solutions and services. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), Japan's largest electronics company, HDS is committed to providing the technological infrastructure for the world's most information-intensive corporations. With 2,600 employees, Hitachi Data Systems does business in the public and private sectors in 170 countries and regions on six continents, including the rapidly emerging economies in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies, and all of the major Storage Service Providers (SSPs). For more information, please visit the HDS Web site at www.hds.com.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion**). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://www.hitachi.com/.

Contacts: PR
Jodi Reinman, Hitachi Data Systems, (408) 970.1050, jodi.reinman@hds.com

*At an exchange rate of 120 yen to the dollar.

**At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.

Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. Freedom Storage and Thunder 9200 are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems.