Emulex Celebrates the 'Art of Convergence' with California State University, Fullerton, Student Sculpture Competition

COSTA MESA, Calif., May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX), announced the winners of its 'Art of Convergence' competition Tuesday evening at a gala event held at the Center Club in Costa Mesa, CA. The sculpture-based art competition gave students of California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), the opportunity to design a work of art using recycled IT equipment to illustrate the concept of 'convergence.' Emulex donated the parts and gave each student $500 to help construct their piece, which was also a major part of their art curriculum. 23 entries were received and Ryan Kidder, from Irvine, Calif., who graduated this month from CSUF with a Bachelor of Arts degree in advertising with a minor in art, was awarded the top prize of $5,000. The runner-up, Mark Upson, from Orange, Calif., a graduate student working on his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture, won $1,000. In addition, Emulex donated $5,000 to the CSUF College of the Arts.

(LOGO:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120403/NE81278LOGO)

The event was attended by CSUF staff, students and administrators, Emulex executives, and local art critics. The 10 finalist sculptures were determined through online voting by Emulex's 997 employees, and the winners were selected by a panel of judges which included Dr. Joe Arnold, College of the Arts Dean at CSUF, Emulex President and COO Jeff Benck, Richard Chang, arts and entertainment writer for The Orange County Register, Emulex chairman Paul Folino, Emulex CEO Jim McCluney, Emulex CFO Mike Rockenbach, and Evan Senn, local artist, contributor to Artillery Magazine and arts writer for KCET in Los Angeles.

Emulex also used social networking to identify a 'People's Choice' award recipient, who was determined by voting on the company's 'Art of Convergence' page on Facebook. The 'People's Choice' award also went to Ryan Kidder who won the award and received an iPad.

Videos and photos of the sculptures are available on the 'Art of Convergence' website and the event's Facebook page. The 10 finalist pieces will be displayed in the lobbies of Emulex's offices worldwide.

"The 'Art of Convergence' project is a unique challenge that stretches our students' abilities because it goes beyond a simple classroom critique to include a competition, a public exhibition of their work, and even prize money," said Jim Jenkins, Professor of Art and Sculpture at CSUF. "It's great to have that kind of competitive spirit in the classroom, and encourages the students to take a more professional approach to their work, which will help them in the future."

"Our goal is to provide the finest education in the arts that we can, and that includes challenging students with opportunities to stretch their creative abilities to new levels," said Dr. Joseph Arnold, College of the Arts Dean at CSUF. "Emulex's 'Art of Convergence' program is a great example of a challenge that elevates our students' aspirations beyond the classroom in order to work on a specific theme that is tied directly to a real-world trend, and gives them the opportunity to display their work publicly."

"The 'Art of Convergence' program represents the root of what we are passionate about at Emulex – being involved in the community around us and fostering education in sciences, engineering, technology and the arts," said Jim McCluney, CEO, Emulex. "The students of today will become the engineers, technologists and innovators of the future, so we wanted to encourage the creative process with a program that challenges students and combines art and technology in a meaningful way."

To learn more about the 'Art of Convergence' competition, please visit: http://www.emulex.com/aoc

To learn more about Emulex, please visit: http://www.emulex.com

To learn more about CSUF, please visit: http://www.fullerton.edu

Read CEO Jim McCluney's blog: Celebrating The Art of Convergence and Community Involvement: http://www.emulex.com/blogs/jim/?p=572

Follow Emulex on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/emulex

About Emulex

Emulex, the leader in converged networking solutions, provides enterprise-class connectivity for servers, networks and storage devices within the data center. The Company's product portfolio of Fibre Channel host bus adapters, 10Gb Ethernet network interface cards, Ethernet-based converged network adapters, controllers, embedded bridges and switches, and connectivity management software are proven, tested and trusted by the world's largest and most demanding IT environments. Emulex solutions are used and offered by the industry's leading server and storage OEMs including, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, Huawei, IBM, NEC, NetApp and Oracle. Emulex is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. More information about Emulex (NYSE:ELX) is available at www.Emulex.com.

Emulex Safe Harbor Statement

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: With the exception of historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. Emulex wishes to caution readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include among others, intellectual property claims, with or without merit, that could result in costly litigation, cause product shipment delays, require Emulex to indemnify customers, or require Emulex to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, which may or may not be available. Furthermore, Emulex have in the past obtained, and may be required in the future to obtain, licenses of technology owned by other parties. Emulex cannot be certain that the necessary licenses will be available or that they can be obtained on commercially reasonable terms. If Emulex were to fail to obtain such royalty or licensing agreements in a timely manner and on reasonable terms, Emulex's business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Ongoing lawsuits, such as the action brought by Broadcom Corporation ("Broadcom"), present inherent risks, any of which could have a material adverse effect on Emulex's business, financial condition, or results of operations.  Such potential risks include continuing expenses of litigation, risk of loss of patent rights and/or monetary damages, risk of injunction against the sale of products incorporating the technology in question, counterclaims, attorneys' fees, incremental costs associated with product or component redesigns, and diversion of management's attention from other business matters.  With respect to the Broadcom litigation such potential risks also include the availability of an adequate sunset period of time to make design changes, the ability to implement any design changes, the availability of customer resources to complete any re-qualification or re-testing that may be needed, the ability to maintain favorable working relationships with Emulex suppliers of SerDes modules and the ability to obtain a settlement that does not put Emulex at a competitive disadvantage. In addition, the fact that the economy generally, and the technology and storage segments specifically, have been in a state of uncertainty makes it difficult to determine if past experience is a good guide to the future and makes it impossible to determine if markets will grow or shrink in the short term.  The current economic downturn and the resulting disruptions in world credit and equity markets that are creating economic uncertainty for Emulex's customers and the storage networking market as a whole has and could continue to adversely affect Emulex's revenues and results of operations.  Furthermore, the effect of any actual or potential unsolicited offers to acquire Emulex may have an adverse effect on Emulex's operations.  As a result of these uncertainties, Emulex is unable to predict its future results with any accuracy. Other factors affecting these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following: faster than anticipated decline in the storage networking market; slower than expected growth of the storage networking market or the failure of Emulex's Original Equipment Manufacturer ("OEM") customers to successfully incorporate Emulex products into their systems; Emulex's dependence on a limited number of customers and the effects of the loss of, decrease in or delays of orders by any such customers, or the failure of such customers to make timely payments; the emergence of new or stronger competitors as a result of consolidation movements in the market; the timing and market acceptance of Emulex products or Emulex OEM customers' new or enhanced products; costs associated with entry into new areas of the storage technology market; the variability in the level of Emulex's backlog and the variable and seasonal procurement patterns of Emulex's customers; any inadequacy of Emulex's intellectual property protection and the costs of actual or potential third-party claims of infringement and any related indemnity obligations or adverse judgments; impairment charges, including but not limited to goodwill and intangible assets; changes in tax rates or legislation; the effects of acquisitions; the effects of terrorist activities; natural disasters, such as the earthquake and resulting tsunami off the coast of Japan in March 2011 and the significant flooding in various parts of Thailand in October 2011, and any resulting disruption in Emulex's supply chain or customer purchasing patterns or any other resulting economic or political instability; the highly competitive nature of the markets for Emulex products as well as pricing pressures that may result from such competitive conditions; the effects of changes in Emulex's business model to separately charge for software; the effect of rapid migration of customers towards newer, lower cost product platforms; possible transitions from board or box level to application specific integrated circuit ("ASIC") solutions for selected applications; a shift in unit product mix from higher-end to lower-end or mezzanine card products; a faster than anticipated decrease in the average unit selling prices or an increase in the manufactured cost of Emulex products; delays in product development; Emulex's reliance on third-party suppliers and subcontractors for components and assembly; Emulex's ability to attract and retain key technical personnel; Emulex's ability to benefit from research and development activities; Emulex's dependence on international sales and internationally produced products; changes in accounting standards; and the potential effects of global warming and any resulting regulatory changes on Emulex's business. These and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are also discussed in Emulex's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Forms 8-K, 10-K and 10-Q. Statements in this release are based on current expectations and, except as required by law, Emulex undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason. All trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

SOURCE Emulex Corporation