July 9, 2004 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. (sun.com) announced today that it is expanding its customer financing capabilities, offered through Sun Microsystems Finance, to better serve federal government customers. Through a newly formed arrangement with Key Equipment Finance's government finance unit, Sun is positioned to provide simplified access to financial solutions for customers in this sector who wish to lease and finance Sun technologies and services.

"The Sun Microsystems Finance alliance with Key Equipment Finance offers customers in the federal and municipal government space access to financing plans tailored to their specific needs, especially concerning contract negotiations and payment schedules," said Kris Snow, vice president of Sun Microsystems Finance. "By partnering with Key Equipment Finance we further reduce the complexity of IT purchasing for our government customers and ultimately improve the value of their investment in Sun's end-to-end technology."

Through the partnership with Key Equipment Finance, customers in the federal government will be able to finance Sun solutions under the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule, allowing them to acquire Sun technology with a convenient monthly payment plan that requires no negotiation. The GSA schedule provides a wide range of purchasing options to address the various financial constraints that are common to federal government agencies.

Key Equipment Finance is an affiliate of KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) and provides business-to-business equipment financing solutions to businesses of many types and sizes.

Since its inception as a global capability in 1999, Sun Microsystems Finance has offered Sun customers competitive, innovative financing for their total Sun solution, reducing cost and complexity and enabling customers to continually innovate throughout the entire IT lifecycle. The Key Equipment Finance program extends these offerings to better meet the unique needs of federal government information technology (IT) purchasers.