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Exhibit 99.01
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ONI Systems Announces Early Release of Shares of Common Stock
SAN JOSE, Calif. - September 28, 2000 - ONI Systems(TM) Corp. (NASDAQ: ONIS)
today announced that Goldman, Sachs & Co., representative of the underwriters in
the Company's May 31, 2000 initial public offering, has authorized an early
release of approximately 14,300,000 shares from the 180-day lock-up agreements,
which stockholders signed in connection with the Company's initial public
offering. The released shares are expected to become available for sale on
October 2, 2000. These shares are owned by stockholders who have agreed to enter
into new lock-up agreements in connection with the registration statements
covering Common Stock and Convertible Subordinated Notes filed today with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the terms of these new lock-up
agreements, the stockholders have agreed not to sell, assign or transfer
securities of ONI prior to 90 days after the effective date of the registration
statements covering the Common Stock or the Convertible Subordinated Notes.
Approximately 8,500,000 shares that were released from the IPO lock-up
agreements on September 6, 2000 and approximately 14,300,000 shares that are
expected to be released on October 2, 2000 will remain eligible for resale
without restriction. In addition, if additional stockholders agree to enter into
the new lock-up agreement, up to approximately 2,000,000 additional shares may
be released on or about October 2, 2000.
About ONI Systems
ONI develops, markets and sells all-optical networking equipment specifically
designed to address bandwidth and service limitations of regional and
metropolitan networks. ONI's products allow communications service providers to
rapidly build high-capacity metro networks that are flexible, scalable and able
to support multiple services on a single platform. ONI's products include the
ONLINE9000(TM) and the ONLINE7000(TM) optical transport platforms. These
products incorporate OPTX(TM), an operating system for wavelength and service
management in optical networks, and OLMP(TM), an optical link management
protocol suite for internetworking between the optical transport and data or
voice switching layers of the network.
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This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe
harbor created by this section. Except for historical information, the matters
discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that are subject
to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those projected. For example, the timing of when shares eligible
for resale are resold in the public market is difficult to predict. These risks
and uncertainties are described from time-to-time in ONI's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including ONI's final Prospectus dated May
31, 2000 for its initial public offering, ONI's report on Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended June 30, 2000, the registration statements relating to ONI's
current public offerings and other documents on file with the SEC.
