Axis expands its global sales and marketing organisation to meet growing network video demand

5/20/2010

Axis Communications (www.axis.com), the global leader in the network video market¹, today announces that it is expanding its worldwide sales and marketing organization to help meet growing market demand. This expansion will enable Axis to better serve the current and future needs of its customers and its partner ecosystem and will specifically include more corporate and local resources to support specialist competencies in vertical industry sectors.

These initiatives are designed not only to grow Axis’ market share but to expand the total addressable market for network video and are manifested in three areas:

Lars Paulsson, previously regional director EMEA, has been appointed to head up the newly-created Global Partners & Business Development department. In this role Paulsson will be responsible for the direction and global execution of Axis’ partner and industry sector business development.

· Investment in industry segment resources – Axis will add central and local resources to enhance network video education, training, implementation and support to provide solutions tailored for customers in high-growth industry segments such as transportation, retail, banking & city surveillance.

· Investment in global partner community – Axis will invest in and expand Axis’ alliance partner ecosystem to enable a wider range of network video solutions for industry segments and application scenarios. As part of this, Axis plans to invest more in developing technology alliances with third party infrastructure providers.

· EMEA becomes five regions - To support future scalability and better serve end customers locally, Axis’ former EMEA sales and marketing operation is now decentralized into five distinct regions: Northern Europe; Middle Europe; Southern Europe; Russia, CIS and the Baltics; and Middle East and Africa.

As part of the new organisation, Phil Doyle’s role is now regional director, Northern Europe. Formally managing director UK & Ireland, Phil will now be responsible for the UK, Ireland and the Nordic countries.

Of his appointment Phil said: “Axis Communications has seen a significant ramp up in the uptake of network video solutions despite a tough economic climate. Recognising this shift, we wanted to ensure that our organisation can meet the requirements of the market and our partners. I am excited at the expansion of my role and my main priority will be to drive the adoption of IP as the new standard for video surveillance.”

Axis has created several new management positions centrally and regionally, the details of which are available on http://www.axis.com/corporate/jobops/jobs.htm

Bodil Sonesson, VP global sales, commented: “As the migration to IP-based network video surveillance continues to gather speed, this is an incredibly exciting time for the company. We expect this expansion, which allows us to be more agile and responsive in local markets while strengthening our core partner and industry sector services will help us better meet both local and global growth opportunities in network video head on. It also benefits the company by providing new and challenging growth prospects for our people”.

Notes to editors

¹Axis Communications is the global market leader in the network video market with a market share of network cameras of 31.2%. The world market for network cameras alone is forecast to be worth more than $2.5 Billion by 2013. The network camera market is set to have a CAGR of more than 28 per cent per year over the next five years, according to industry analyst house IMS Research (www.imsresearch.com) in its latest market report entitled ‘The World Market for CCTV and Video Surveillance Equipment 2009 Edition’ published in August 2009.

About Axis Communications
Axis is an IT company offering network video solutions for professional installations. The company is the global market leader in network video, driving the ongoing shift from analogue to digital video surveillance. Axis products and solutions focus on security surveillance and remote monitoring and are based on innovative, open technology platforms.

Axis is a Swedish-based company, operating worldwide with offices in more than 20 countries and cooperating with partners in more than 70 countries. Founded in 1984, Axis is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm Exchange under the ticker AXIS. For more information about Axis, please visit our website at www.axis.com

For further information about Axis Communications, please contact:

Deborah Leah, Insight Marketing & Communications

Tel.: +44 (0) 7810 834 548, e-mail: axis@insightmkt.com